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Custody of the Heart
Claire's number one priority is her family. When her husband Dennis loses his stockbroker job, the couple's traditional family roles switch. As Dennis takes on his new stay-at-home role, Claire's furniture design business takes off. Just as she's beginning to master the art of balancing her home and work life, Dennis serves her with divorce papers and charges her with being an unfit mother. Claire discovers that in a modern courtroom there are still traditional biases unsympathetic to the idea of a woman working three jobs, as a wife, an entrepreneur and a mother.
| Release : | 2000 |
| Rating : | 5.3 |
| Studio : | Lifetime, Hearst Entertainment Productions, Daniel L. Paulson Productions, |
| Crew : | Production Design, Property Master, |
| Cast : | Lorraine Bracco Martin Donovan Dennis Boutsikaris Sheila McCarthy Nancy Palk |
| Genre : | Drama TV Movie |
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Reviews
That was an excellent one.
Expected more
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
A well made TV movie with social relevance and two very good performances from Lorraine Bracco and Martin Donovan as the feuding Raphaels, whose marriage eventually breaks down amid jealousy and bitterness. This is very much a modern tale that appeals to the new generation of successful female workers and their less than successful husbands struggling to redefine and regain their masculinity. Bracco's Clare Raphael is the successful businesswoman while her husband played by Donovan flounders as his role as principal breadwinner wilts. Donovan portrays the jealous husband with a forlorn conviction and thankfully he doesn't ham up his portrayal. Bracco is the standout and she drags this story up from its TV origins into something far more profound. The story does not have the requisite happy ending but instead is more realistic in its conclusion. An engrossing, watchable fable on modern marriage and the changing roles of men and women in the family.
I caught this movie by chance 5 minutes into the beginning, and I stayed because of beautiful Lorraine Bracco's impeccable passionate performance. She is one of many underappreciated actors in Hollywood. I expected the same of Martin Donovan. Throughout the movie I kept waiting for him to reveal something more than this strangely lacklustre, almost wooden performance, especially because he had made such a drastic move by turning his wife out of their house literally overnight. His performance did not give me any clues to his personality, but knowing and liking Mr.Donovan, I kept waiting till the end. The script did not provide anything and in the end it just peters out. It's a pity because it's such an everyday issue, most of us have been in that place at some point of our lives, but only one of the scenes with the children was really outstanding. I gave it 5 points only for Ms.Bracco!
I thought this was one of the best Lifetime MadeforTV movies I have seen, principally because of really strong,affecting performances by Bracco, McCarthy, and the always dependable Boutsikaris. I would give it 9 of 10 stars only because the script telegraphs its points a bit and because a woman as successful as the Bracco character seems written to be pretty dumb about some other, domestic/divorce/court matters.
