David's Mother

1994
6.2| 1h30m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 10 April 1994 Released
Producted By:
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Sally Goodson has been raising her autistic son David alone since her husband left many years ago. Now a social worker discovers that Sally has been dodging 'The System' to keep her son with her, instead of putting him in an institution. Each feels they know what's best for David. But their opinions are not the same. Sally's developing relationship with John Nils is caught in the middle.

Genre

Drama, TV Movie

Watch Online

David's Mother (1994) is now streaming with subscription on Prime Video

Director

Robert Allan Ackerman

Production Companies

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 30-day free trial
Watch Now
David's Mother Videos and Images

David's Mother Audience Reviews

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!
Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
lyn_hardy I am watching this film at the moment on channel 61, At the point where Sally and John have the row about her leaving and not telling him, the actor changes and so does his clothes! Suddenly a much younger man is in place of John wearing a white cable knit sweater. This happens three times and then Sally becomes a younger version of herself, different hairstyle, makeup and clothes! I am puzzled as to how this film, that has received such great reviews and nominations for the acting, can be so badly edited. I have found this so distracting I had to break away and look the film up to see if anyone else has noticed this.Otherwise, it is a good film but I am being penickity perhaps.
sfrabjous I caught part of this movie by accident when it first came out. I had a four year old daughter and two year old twin sons, one of whom was not normal, a husband who didn't want to be bothered with raising them, and had given up my shop to stay home with the children. I had no idea what was wrong with my son, who was only very slightly developmentally delayed, but was strangely aloof. This movie presented some of my son's oddities, and I was terrified by much of what I saw. I modified some of my behavior with him beginning that day and talked to our doctor, family members and educators I knew about whether he could be autistic. All were sure that he was not, and I deeply regret that I didn't pursue a second or seventieth medical opinion. In kindergarten my son was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. I've been a single mother for 14 years now, and my son is generally viewed as quirky and shy rather than disabled: only time will tell how well he will do in the world.I can assure you, firsthand, that David's mother would indeed have been far too frazzled and depressed to carry on a relationship with a man even so patently wonderful as Sam Waterston's character (and I've had a crush on Waterston ever since he played Benedict in "Much Ado About Nothing"). I also have a problem with the all-or-nothing ending: David's mom surely should have found a way to see him daily, while allowing him the advantages that trained professionals could offer. But then, I think the same thing about myself.
Isaac5855 Kirstie Alley won an Emmy for her performance in DAVID'S MOTHER, an uncompromising look at a blue-collar, boorish mother, who seems to be at a total loss at how to deal with her autistic son. Alley, cast against type, loses herself in this role of an uneducated, trailer-trash kind of mother who wants to love and help her son but is never really quite sure about what she should be doing for him. The always reliable Stockard Channing is also featured as her snobbish sister and Sam Waterston is charming as a man Alley gets involved with but this is Alley's movie and she forsakes any pretense of glamor to realistically portray an unsympathetic character in a difficult situation who somehow still manages to make us feel for her even though we know that a lot of what this woman does and feels is just wrong. Alley makes the most of a rather unpleasant role and gave us a memorable television experience, light years away from her role as Rebecca Howe on CHEERS.
studiojudio Although Kirstie Alley is normally a very good actress, in THIS particular production, I found her to be rude, obnoxious, and a down-right SLOB. She is so bitter that she relies on sarcasm to get her through life. Her son is Autistic, she's a Pig....how's that for a summary? Her sister (portrayed by the ALWAYS-wonderful Stockard Channing) decides it's time for Kirstie Alley's character to meet a man. This is depsite the fact that her home is a pig-sty and she looks like a bag lady... She is introduced to a character named John Nils, portrayed by the EVEN MORE ALWAYS WONDERFUL Sam Waterston. He is sweet, gentle, kind, and bloody beautiful. He tries his heart out to help her change her attitude towards her handicapped child, and give him a chance to get some treatment, as well as enter a program for children with Autism. Of course this enrages Ms. Alley's character. However, after bedding down with Mr. Nils (Mr. Waterston looks divine in a black velour bathrobe), she realizes he's right about her kid - but wrong for her....naaaah. She doesn't love him enough to stay with him. And she decides to tell him this in his store. What a TERRIFIC CHICK this is...of course, he loves HER, so you can see the pain in his eyes when she tells him, for all intents and purposes, that it's over between them... In my personal opinion, I was kinda hoping they'd commit HER along with her poor son. She was simply boorish, and of course wasn't helping the poor boy anyway. I came away from this with a "yecch" expression. If you're going to put someone opposite the ever kind/generous/loving/extremely talented Sam Waterston, let it NOT be Kirstie Alley. If only they'd allowed Stockard Channing to play the part, the whole movie would've had much more class to it..