Saint Maybe
Tags: tragedy

Plot synopsis:
Tyler's plot explores the ways ordinary people react to disastrous events with quietly heroic behavior. When seventeen-year-old Ian Bedloe confronts his older brother Danny with his belief that the latter's wife, Lucy, is having an affair, Danny commits suicide. Shortly after, Lucy dies of an overdose of sleeping pills, and responsibility for the care of the deceased couple's three children (two from their mother's previous marriage) falls to their grandparents. A profoundly guilty Ian, who has discovered his accusations were wrong, receives spiritual guidance from Reverend Emmett of the storefront Church of the Second Chance, and he decides to drop out of college to become a carpenter and help his ailing parents with the children, until he eventually becomes their primary caretaker, sacrificing his own freedom to fulfill what he perceives to be a lifelong moral obligation.
As the years pass and the three children mature, Ian continues to be torn between his sense of obligation to the children and the urge to have a "real life," but he increasingly finds solace and peace in participation at the church and becomes devoted to it, its homespun followers, and Rev. Emmett. Ian also develops into a dependable and loving father. The two oldest children (Agatha and Thomas) eventually leave home and form their own families, while the youngest (Daphne) stays home with Ian and the grandparents. When the grandmother has a heart attack, Agatha returns to find a disorganized house and tries to restore order. Efforts to organize the house with help from Daphne's friend, a young female professional "Clutter Counselor"(Rita), ultimately provide Ian with an opportunity for a new beginning. "Moving back and forth among the points of view of various characters, Ms. Tyler traces two decades in the lives of the Bedloes, showing us the large and small events that shape family members' lives and the almost imperceptible ways in which feelings of familial love and obligation mutate over the years."

Review: Made me want to read the book.
This is a story of a man's search for forgiveness.
A young man gives up his plans for the future in order to raise his orphaned nieces and nephew.
Mary-Louise Parker is wonderful(as usual).
She is the reason to watch this movie.
Blythe Danner and Edward Herrman are also two of my favorite actors.
I ran across this one evening and decided to watch based on the cast.
I was hooked right away but I felt there was too much missing from the story.
I had to read the book.
I read the book the following weekend and found that the movie was actually quite faithful to the book just lacking the detail that you only get from a book.
All in all, I would recommend this movie (and also the book)..
You can't change the past...but you can make choices for the future..
While this movie was a little thin in places and had a less than imaginative ending, it is well worth watching and is a nice contrast to highly unrealistic Hollywood films and soap operas where the dead come back to life and/or people really get second chances.How does a person live with the knowledge that his own actions (although they were well intentioned but misguided at the time)destroyed the lives of those closest and dearest to him and caused years of pain and suffering to others?
Many would turn to drugs, alcohol, anger, denial, or suicide.
This movie shows how it is possible to reach inside yourself and out to others to heal some of the wrong that was done.
I liked how it also had a sub-plot about how the young man succeded in life without going to college or getting married (or atleast not until later in life)and how he wanted to "make things that people won't throw away".While it's not the kind of movie you watch with friends and a beer, it's great for a quiet evening at home alone or with family.
It gets you thinking.The only trouble that I have with it is that while it begins very strong and I felt drawn into the characters and their dilemas, the last 1/4 of the film was very weak and the characters became cardboard and cliche almost.
the oldest girl became a doctor, the youngest a rebellious misfit.
Just try to overlook that part and you'll enjoy it..
How do you live in the present when you can't erase the past?.
Saint Maybe (1998) (TV) was directed by Michael Pressman and based on the novel by Anne Tyler.
Thomas McCarthy plays Ian Bedloe, a teenager who has a fine home, loving family, and lovely girlfriend.
For reasons that are complex, and not clear to Ian or to us, Ian initiates a chain of action that leads to tragedy.
Naturally, he feels tremendous guilt.
The movie is about what you do when you're a good person who has made an irrevocable mistake.
Anne Tyler is an excellent author, and the film is faithful to the basic plot of her novel.
The acting is uniformly good, and the production has the usual solid strength we expect from the Hallmark Hall of Fame.This film probably won't make your all-time best 100 films list, but it's still worth seeing.
Also, Anne Tyler's novel is definitely worth reading.
I had read the novel years ago, and just saw the film, so I can't make specific comments about the degree to which the script reflects the novel.
Still, my impression is that this is a solid and careful adaptation..
Need To See To Understand....
I had to watch this movie again, while I agree it may be thin in places, the overall plot made me want to see the end, I admired the dignity that Tom McCarthy displayed and I was pleased to see that there were good solid morals portrayed.
It took courage for Ian to sacrifice his youth (to atone for his mistake) and while he could have gone off the rails as someone suggested it was quite noble of him to draw strength from God and raise the kids like his own and never divulge the terrible secret of their mothers' past to them.
It is quite simply a nice but realistic movie, people are faced with choices like these everyday, most people actually chicken out!!!Real Men & Women are those who do not need to shout to be heard but live with dignity and strength!!!.
Enjoyable.
A Hallmark movie about a young man who turns to God and church after a family tragedy.
Wonderfully written, nice sets, and a terrific cast.
Thomas McCarthy was very good in the leading role, and you can spot a pre-"Providence" Melina Kanakaredes in the role of his girlfriend.
Also starring Gwyneth Paltrow's mom, Blythe Danner.
A very good movie..
This a story about second chances.
This a story about second chances.
I do not know how faithful it is to Anne Tyler's novel, I have not read it, but I know in real life everyone needs second chances.
In this story everyone gets a second chance but Danny, unfortunately.
Lucy gets a second chance with Danny.
Bee and Doug Beedloe get a second chance to be parents and they do a good job.
Ian ruins Lucy's second chance, but redeems himself by taking responsibility for raising the orphaned children as his parents age, and they do a good job raising them.
When the other grandmother is finally found years after Danny and Lucy's deaths, Ian realizes that they are better off without that woman in their lives.
A second chance with that grandmother would have been a disaster.
Finally Ian himself gets his own second chance with Rita.
The Church of Second Chances is a metaphor for life.
God is always there giving second chances,and even third and fourth ones.
Life is filled with second chances, if we only see them and embrace them..
Saint Maybe-Not. This is a very poor attempt to translate a marvelous book to the screen.
Hallmark should have made this a multi-parter, and definitely should have left elements of the book alone.
"Saint Maybe" is a very long book, and may well be Tyler's masterpiece.
Condensing it into a "movie of the week" format dilutes the vivid images painted by her.
"The Accidental Tourist" was much better and kept as faithful to the book as possible.
If you haven't read "Saint Maybe" you should.
Once you do you'll love it and ask "why did Hallmark change so much?!?" I was very disappointed.
The actors try very hard to win us over, but the script is just too weak.
Perhaps someone will attempt to make another of her books into a movie with better results..
Terrible.
I sat down thinking I would have a nice quiet evening watching a chick flick kind of movie.
What I ended up doing was wasting my evening hoping this movie would get better.
I watched it to the end and no it never got better.
I felt cheated out of a evening I could have been watching something worthwhile.
Don't waste your time.
Don't waste your time.
It never gets better.
it just drags on and on.
Find a movie that causes some other emotion that pity for the author for believing she was a real writer.
The movie and the book are a waste of money, time and energy.
There are plenty of books that read better and don't make you feel like you just want to get through it..
Sobfest, courtesy of Hallmark.
I saw "Saint Maybe" on the Hallmark Channel.
I don't know what I was thinking.
It's a wonderful cast, including Blythe Danner, Mary-Louise Parker, Edward Herrmann, and Thomas McCarthy.
I haven't read the book by Anne Tyler, so I can't comment on the transfer from book to screen.It's the story of a young man named Ian (McCarthy) whose brother Danny (Jeffrey Nordling) marries a flighty young woman named Lucy (Parker) very shortly after meeting her at his post office window, when she wants to mail a bowling ball.
Lucy has two children by a previous marriage, and 7 months after marrying Danny, has a third.
The baby is said to be premature, but Ian isn't buying it, and is pretty sure the child isn't the deliriously happy Danny's.
Constantly called on to babysit, Ian grows more and more suspicious of his sister-in-law over time - she is constantly going out with her girlfriend Dot and coming home with jewelery, scarves, and new clothes, and she seems to need a sitter an awful lot.One night, when his own date is ruined because Lucy doesn't come home as promised, Danny returns first and drives Ian home.
Ian loses his temper and tells Danny all of his suspicions.
His brother is very upset and, after dropping off Ian at home, crashes into a tree and dies.
If that isn't bad enough, Lucy dies not long afterward of a sedative overdose.
Now the question is, what to do with the three orphaned children.
The elderly grandparents (Danner and Herrmann) do their best, but guilt-ridden Ian stumbles into a church one night and realizes that he has to make a decision.I said I don't know what I was thinking because I became very absorbed in this story and cried through most of it, hating myself every step of the way for watching it.
It's a very warm, sentimental story with some lovely scenes.
It has Hallmark stamped all over it - it's perfect family entertainment about a man who, in looking for forgiveness, finds that he can't undo what happened, but he can create what happens now.Very good, but have some tissues nearby.
Get a bunch ready for an especially poignant scene with Edward Herrmann.
Blast him.
He's fabulous..
Good But It is Very Hard to Watch..
BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS.
SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME.
NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE.
IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM .
NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS.
I HAVE NO AGENDA.
I AM HONESTIn this film a 19 year old college student Ian gets roped into babysitting his brothers kids once again.
He gets very mad that his sister in law promises to be home at a certain time and she isn't.
This makes IAN very mad because he just missed an important date with his girlfriend who he hardly see's.
They both go to desperate colleges.
He was kind enough to babysit however he feels disrespected when his sister in law ruins his plans.
Once his brother comes home after work he see's that IAN is babysitting.
Ian tells his brother things he believes about his wife including the fact that he thinks she is cheating on him.
The two brothers have a minor fight and IAN'S brother ends up in an auto accident and dies.
A short time later Ian's sister in-laws overdoses and dies.
Ian is racked with guilt now because he feels responsible for the deaths of both people.
A short time later he drops out of school to become the guardian of his brothers children and step children.
I enjoyed this film.
The ending was not what I expected because I did want something more elaborate.
The acting is fine in this and the pacing of the film is very solid.
I really would not calls this "A Christmas Film" but it is about having faith.
The message in this film I do support.
Its about making amends and saving yourself in the process..
the director got lost after good start.
This movie started out so good and really had me hooked but then I got confused,then outright lost.The movie starts out about a very close family who've gathered at Christmas and the oldest brother has his girlfriend with him and proclaims they're getting married.The wife who already has two kids acts very spacey.Next scene the couple has had a baby but only been married 7 months which the younger brother tells anyone who'll listen that it's not his brother's baby.Where is all this going?
The movie is about the younger brother(Ian) and how he ends up living his life after tragedy in the family but it takes it's time getting there.Ian tells his brother how his wife is cheating on him,that the baby's not his and how she is always getting babysitters during the day and coming home late,not to mention always having fancy clothes he didn't buy.The brother knows his wife has a problem but only sees the good in her.
He drops Ian off after he finishes trashing his wife and so angry on the inside he crashes into a tree killing himself.The wife is unable to function or work and also commits suicide by taking pills.Ian the only one who knows why the two are dead thinks it's his fault since he finds out the wife's problem was that she was a kleptomaniac not cheating on her husband.Ian who was in college and had a steady girl keeps seeing the couple and after going into a storefront church and confessing what he's done dedicates his life to the kids.The family can't find any relatives and his parents are up in age so he drops out of college and raises the 3 kids and becomes a devout church member.I was very confused as to the era.It seemed to start in the 50's yet at the wife's grave a woman was in a very short mini skirt.The children grew to adulthood but yet Ian looked the same as he did in college except for one part where he looked older then back to young Ian.At the end he meets a woman but she seems to be in the 80's while everybody else seems to be in the early 70's.She comes into the movie out of nowhere the barely have 2 scenes together and he end up telling everyone he's marrying her as the kids are established in their lives.Oh yeah oldest girl has a doll when she's little that has a piece of paper she hides from everyone.The woman Ian marries is a house clutter remover and the doll ends up on top of the trash.He sees it pulls the paper out reads an address on it and ends up finding the kids real grandmother on their father's side.She has always hated the kids mother and her son is dead also from an accident.He realizes it was his destiny to raise the kids in a loving home as she didn't want them anyway.
I give it 5/10 for touching my heart but the movie doesn't flow smoothly.