In another time, with another director, another writer and a lot more imagination, Paul Danner might have grown up to become Norman Bates.
Instead, he`s slick and successful Manhattan criminal attorney Paul Danner (Gregory Harrison), whose arm is twisted by law school gal-pal Janey Kirkland (Stephanie Zimbalist) into defending teenager Kenny Becker (Chris Young), accused of murdering his violent, abusive father.
There is something strange about Kenny`s relationship with his mother, whom he says he was protecting. Danner begins to suspect that this mother-son bond might mirror his own tangled relationship with his mother.
As he gets closer to Kenny and his feelings, so does Danner begin to confront his own buried demons, which have made his emotional and sexual life a mess and are making him unable to deal with the affection offered by Kirkland.
As the murder trial progresses in the courtroom, another takes place in Danner`s psyche. The final courtroom moments are embarrassing to watch, as the kid admits his terrible secret and Danner reacts as if he has had some sort of psychological epiphany. Man and boy, the impression is firmly made, are on the road to emotional recovery.
That`s just the last of many troubling items we are asked to swallow. All concern incest, a subject sordid enough without being embellished by seamy flashbacks, back-alley trysts and other contrivances. They spoil some fine performances and make for one nasty little movie.
”BREAKING THE SILENCE”
A CBS movie presentation produced by Permut Presentations Inc., in association with the Finnegan/Pinchuk Co. David Permut, Sheldon Pinchuk and Patricia Finnegan executive producers; Lori-Etta Taub producer, Adam Greenman writer and Robert Iscove director. With Gregory Harrison, Stephanie Zimbalist, Chris Young, Kevin Conway and Kelly Rutherford. Airing at 8 p.m. Tuesday on CBS-Ch. 2.
Channel hopping …
– ”Hale the Hero” (8 p.m. and midnight Tuesday on Arts & Entertainment), on ”General Motors Playwrights Festival,” is playwright Richard Vetere`s one-act stab at revising the historical record on Nathan Hale.
It casts the author of one of the most famous lines in history-”I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”-as reluctant hero, a deserter taken prisoner by the British, accused of being a spy and sentenced to death.
George Washington, in need of a martyr for the cause, enlists comely spy Alice Adams (Elizabeth Shue) to persuade Hale to face the music boldly.
”Heroes make others realize their own petty failures,” says Hale, who maintains that he is innocent and wants to announce that at his hanging.
Adams, who pretends to be Hale`s fiance to gain entrance to where he is being held, argues war with Hale and eventually beds him.
The play`s anti-war sentiments are muted by this implausible love story, a number of dramatic gambits and forced ambiguities.
Anderson pulls off Hale`s final speech with style. Otherwise this is a trifle.
– The headlines may scream sadly of teen suicides. But the people committing most of the suicides in the U.S. are white middle-class males over age 30.
That`s the news from ”Suicide Notes,” the latest edition of HBO`s
”American Undercover” (9 p.m. Tuesday). In it, we meet six men. Five of them were successful suicides. We get to know them, a bit, through short biographical sketches, suicide notes they wrote, and words of their survivors. The sixth man is Ed Gallagher. He`s a former football star who at 27 took a leap to the concrete from the top of a dam. He didn`t die, but wound up paralyzed from the chest down. He now sits in a wheelchair, trying to make sense of what drove him to try to take his life.
Gallagher, languishing in sweaty jobs, football glory gone, was full of
”self-loathing” over his first homosexual experience, which took place less than two weeks before his jump. Frank Dobinson, a successful 56-year-old chemist, and Nick McRae, a heavy-drinking 34-year-old writer, seemed to snap after professional setbacks. Carmine D`Angelo, a 34-year-old dentist, was depressed by his father`s recent death.
None of the surviving wives seem able to make sense of their husbands`
deaths. How could they? The suicide note written by 49-year-old businessman Alex Council, for example, states that his suicide is ”a business decision” and offers 15 pages of advice about how his wife should deal with the IRS.
The program is eerie on its surface. But it does not unlock the mystery of suicide. It shows us men trapped in depression, who, instead of seeking professional help, opted for quick escape.
– ”Wild America” (7:30 p.m. Thursday, PBS-Ch. 11) celebrates its 10th anniversary on the air with what host Marty Stouffer calls ”a loving look back.” Never has love looked so limp. We see some pretty but relatively tame clips from the nature show`s past; an interesting rattlesnake mating dance sequence; and some neat-looking time-lapse and slow-motion video. But this is a celebration without any snap.
