Reunion (1994)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Powerful

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It's part drama, part ghost story. Some slow moments, but it pays off. Marlo Thomas is excellent as usual and should have won an Emmy for this one. I don't want to give away the plot (unlike everyone else here), but I will say it is a deeply touching film. The final scene will bring tears to your eyes and stick with you long afterwards. Peter Strauss is also wonderful here playing the confused and grieving father. His admission of guilt scene is proof of what an underrated actor he was. REUNION is powerful, emotional, haunting and a beautiful piece of TV movie making. This film was directed by actress Lee Grant. This should be released on DVD!

Reunion is one of those movies where the words "I'm back" are supposed to hold many deep and profound meanings in addition to the literal one. However, all it does is make you laugh at it's absurdity and choke up the popcorn you were dozing off on.What could have been a touching story about motherhood and family, or a moving film exploring the pain of loss and how it was dealt with, or a smart psychological thriller or even a little horror flick a la Pet Sematary - has been rendered utterly pointless and horribly boring due to an inane amateurish school-playish script.Though the lead actress must be given due credit for her face distorting performance as the distraught mother, it is hardly her fault that her melodrama could not live up to a script that has her babbling motherly nothings to her kids (both dead and alive) throughout the movie.Other actors need no special mention for guest appearances and cardboard props could probably have done better justice to their presence on screen.The kids, however, being an integral part of the movie, ruin it even further beyond belief with their atrocious acting skills coupled with the equally wooden lines they had to mouth.But though the scriptwriter has stolen from the story any glimmer of verisimilitude and turned it into an over the top tale with below average dialogues, could not the director have salvaged the movie with some amount of respectability to the intelligence of the unfortunate viewers? Well, he does try. At times the scenes between Mother and child, shot in bluish dark soft light, attempt to evoke tenderness in the hearts of the sleeping viewers. But then the very next instant he scares you out of your reverie with gimmicks straight out of horror movie textbooks. And the next moment the viewer is treated to spooky music pasted on scenes depicting the mother being affectionate to her children.And though the scenes by themselves might be half effective as to what the director hopes to achieve in the viewer's mind, they fail to come together as one complete movie. The viewer is left feeling sympathetic for the child, then spooked out by him, then feeling sorry for the mother, then suspicious about her, and so on and so forth. By the end of the movie the viewer has no idea what he just watched.Of course, the director must also be lauded for his heavy use of symbolism throughout the movie, which the idle viewer is compelled to notice (and often invent) for lack of anything truly interesting in the film. For example, breathing life into the child (literally!), macadamia nuts (to explain that she is going a little nutty now), gingerbread-man (the little one who has run away)... and many more (don't even get me started on the horses!). If you happen to be subject to this movie some day, I suggest you entertain yourself by spotting some more. Assuredly, they are mostly unintended anyway.And to cap it all on a good note, the lights are well used, the snow looks nice, so do the animals. This won't hurt your eyes. Only your intelligence.

Marlo Thomas may be the most under-appreciated and unrealized talent in the history of Hollywood household names! The story revolves around a woman named Jessie Yates, who, with her husband Sam, has three children, the youngest of whom, Jamie,almost dies at birth and then later perishes in a tragic accident. Directed by actress Lee Grant, "Reunion" shows how one family deals, or attempts to deal, with the death of a child, a child who makes ghostly appearances witnessed at first by Jessie, then later, we are told, by another of the children. The script manages to tiptoe, then jump, into a dramatic and ghostly thriller wherein an angst-filled woman becomes tempted to cross over to the other side of reality--or is it insanity? The movie is a roller coaster ride of scary, tearful, suspenseful and warm moments, especially the surprise ending, which resounds like an earthquake of emotional drama, well-directed, well-scored and excellently played by all. Robin Fletcher, Denton, Texas

...but it was a little creepy. Marlo Thomas and Peter Strauss are a very loving couple who live with his mother on the family farm. They have a daughter and then she gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl. For reasons I can't go in to, she has a very strong bond with her son. When a tragedy occurs in the family, Marlo flips her wig and engages in some very odd and sometimes dangerous behavior.The story here is very good, the characters are believable, and there was lots of snow, which I love! There is a very creepy overtone in this movie that had me shuddering at times, especially during the climactic scene of the movie. If this had been in black and white, this movie could have been almost gothic; it had that feel to it. I highly recommend this movie if you like to get the heebie jeebies. I saw it on Lifetime, so look for it there.