Change of Heart

(1998 TV Movie)

Starring
Jean Smart and John Terry

Reviewed by Blase DiStefano


Change of Heart: (left) Elaine & Jim Marshall (Jean Smart & John Terry)
are married, but Jim has a change of orientation (right)
with Phil Summers (Patrick Kelly, background).

Elaine Marshall (Jean Smart of Designing Women fame) has been in a conventional heterosexual marriage for 20 years. Or at least that's what she thought. Come to find out, her straight husband, Dr. Jim Marshall (John Terry), is not all that straight. Her happy marriage with two darling children and two beautiful houses—one in the city, the other in the country—suddenly turns into a major transitional life change when she discovers Jim is having an affair with another man, Phil Summers (Patrick Kelly).

With the present media bombardment of gay news, Elaine seems overly naive about gay issues, even though she counts a gay male couple as friends (my guess is that they're really acquaintances). But Elaine and Jim have apparently raised their children to be open about such issues: in one touching scene, their son is protective of a gay guy who is being verbally harassed. However, after his father tells him he's gay, the son bashes that same guy.

Change of Heart is full of contradictions, but then so is life. And this TV movie admirably depicts one of many events that might happen when we come out of our closets.

["Change of Heart" premiered July 20, 1998 on Lifetime TV.]

[The review ran in OutSmart, July 1998.]

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