Filmed in Vancouver by District IAW CBP Prods. Executive producers, Dick Berg, Allan Mercil; producer, Deborah Gabler; director, Christopher Leitch; writer, Nevin Screiner. [###]
Muriel Davidson - Meredith Baxter
Bill Davidson - John Heard
Don Wigulow - Peter Coyote
Mimi Davidson - Brittney Irvin
Andrea Glissner - Babz Chula
Martha Sullivan - Ingrid Thomas
With: Klodeyne Rodney, Joe Maffei, Adam Harrington, Keith Gordey.
Will someone please rush the Eye web to a recovery program? In CBS’ “The Wednesday Woman,” a married alcoholic develops a toxic relationship with a dangerous ex-con, but it’s the poor viewer who gets to suffer most.
As the press notes indicate, Nevin Screiner’s pedestrian script is actually “inspired” by the life of popular novelist Muriel Davidson, who was involved with a fellow Alcoholics Anonymous member. The filmmakers, however, have taken full liberty with the other facts of Davidson’s life. In the telepic, she lives in the Pacific Northwest instead of Benedict Canyon, Calif., and her affair doesn’t cost the writer her life, as it tragically did in the real world. Perhaps the filmmakers thought May sweeps watchers couldn’t stomach the downbeat ending.
One could allow for creative license had the end result been anything worth watching. Yet the fact that the project plays like the ones that run frequently on Lifetime makes the whole effort a futile exercise.
Muriel (Meredith Baxter) has just published a spicy book about a woman infatuated with a criminal who is mad, bad and dangerous to know. Before you can say life-imitates-art, she develops a similar passion for a down-and-out rogue and despite the warnings of her TV producer husband (John Heard), she falls off the wagon and embarks on a sleazy affair with Don Wigulow (Peter Coyote).
Perhaps because the thesps playing the triangle’s central figures — Baxter, Coyote and Heard — have all portrayed these type of roles so many times before, the freshness factor is close to zero.
If the pic has anything going for it, it’s lenser Ron Orieux’s lingering images of Vancouver and Muriel’s oceanfront house, which are a great antidote for the lurid plot. Pray for Rain’s music is also worthy of a mention; thanks to the soothing soundtrack, the luckier viewers may be lulled to sleep before the hokey climax rolls around.
Camera, Ron Orieux; music, Pray for Rain; production designer, Jo-Ann Chorney; editor, John Duffy; casting, Lisa Freiberger, Sid Kozak. Running time: 120 MIN.
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Date in print: Tue., May. 23, 2000