A Stranger to Love (1996)

I have seen this movie four times now and I always look forward to it. I also always shed a tear at the end. The ending is not the usual happy ending and because of this it feels more like the true story that it is based on.Beau Bridges gives one of his best performances, managing to convey the memory loss and gradual recovery that is accompanied by the heart-breaking decision he has to make. There is also the bonus of seeing his two real-life sons in the film. Pam Dawber and Tess Harper give good supporting performances.I am surprised this film has such a low rating. I have seen many TV movies and this is easily one of the best I have come across. It is not as gratuitously sentimental as many have been although it could easily have been. If you have not seen it, do yourself a favour and give it a try. You may be pleasantly surprised.

I have to be honest that I missed most of this movie. I was channel flipping and stopped to watch the last half-hour. I quickly figured out that he had amnesia (though I didn't know why) and that he had to make a difficult choice to stay with the new life he created or go back to the old one. No matter which choice, he was going to hurt a woman he loved and children. I found the ending unsatisfying and unrealistic. I won't put any spoilers here about which way he went, but such a decision would be far too emotionally and logistically complex that no one could decide as quickly and decisively as he did. This director wrapped up the entire ending in about 15 minutes without giving us much insight as to WHY.

Good lesson in not being unobservant concerning your surroundings. Such an attitude led to this man losing his memory, identity, and family. He became a dirty, homeless street person who wound up in a trash box just for a scrap of food. When he received sympathy from a kind woman, not only his fortunes changed but her's also leading to a strange outcome.

This is a well used plot but the movie was engrossing throughout. The end of the movie was strangely disturbing to me, maybe inevitably, because no matter what the Beau Bridges character decides at the end he was going to be hurting an entire family. I actually found myself hoping he would choose differently than he did at the end. It wouldn't have been the politically right decision but I was more sympathetic toward the other female character.