This is the kind of movie that would have resonated more with me when I was a lot younger, say in my Twenties or Thirties. The story it tells is effectively done, involving real people in credible situations, who in many ways find themselves dysfunctional in parts of their lives. I thought the actions of mother Jean Coughlin (Rebecca Nelson) to cause a rift between her daughter Maria (Adrienne Shelly) and Matthew (Martin Donovan) were especially despicable. Why that scenario didn't blow up was a question mark I had coming out of the picture. The other head scratcher was when Robert Howard (Jeff Howard) fainted dead away at the sight of Maria the first time at the train station - Why? There was no apparent reason for that to have occurred.
So there appeared to be a few holes in the story that could have been handled a bit better. I also considered the maturity level Maria possessed for being a high school dropout, she handled herself well in conversation with the much better educated Matthew. Particularly when she related to the idea of respect, admiration and trust as being synonymous with love. She did that without the thesaurus which I thought was significantly above her grade level. I could almost relate to Matthew's obsession with quality control but he took things too far at his workplace. It seemed to me that he could have upgraded his career choices by moving on to a more ethical firm. He wouldn't have needed a hand grenade to do it.
Perhaps my biggest takeaway from the story - I still would like to know what would have happened if Matthew followed through on trusting Maria to catch him off the ledge. The distraction that occurred was just a bit too convenient to take their minds off the matter at hand.
So there appeared to be a few holes in the story that could have been handled a bit better. I also considered the maturity level Maria possessed for being a high school dropout, she handled herself well in conversation with the much better educated Matthew. Particularly when she related to the idea of respect, admiration and trust as being synonymous with love. She did that without the thesaurus which I thought was significantly above her grade level. I could almost relate to Matthew's obsession with quality control but he took things too far at his workplace. It seemed to me that he could have upgraded his career choices by moving on to a more ethical firm. He wouldn't have needed a hand grenade to do it.
Perhaps my biggest takeaway from the story - I still would like to know what would have happened if Matthew followed through on trusting Maria to catch him off the ledge. The distraction that occurred was just a bit too convenient to take their minds off the matter at hand.