A beautifully acted, well-made dramatisation of the true story of an American college athlete's fight against terminal leukaemia, based on the best-selling memoir by his mother, Doris Lund. Eric is portrayed by John Savage, who went on to distinguish himself in The Deer Hunter and - particularly - in the central role of the young cop who survives an assassination attempt in The Onion Field. Here, Savage is just right: his tour-de-force performance makes everything natural, believable and in the end inspiring. As his mother, that excellent actress Patricia Neal is also superb. A decade previously, Neal herself had fought illness - determined to recover from a stroke which had left her seriously paralysed (her story was later told in the 1981 TV movie The Patricia Neal Story). Excellent support comes from Claude Akins as Eric's father, Mark Hamill and Eileen McDonough as his brother and sister, Sian Barbara Allen as the nurse and, by no means least, David Sheiner as the no-nonsense doctor. It is all beautifully handled by director James Goldstone and a box of tissues is recommended.


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