Tv Review: 'a Will Of Their Own'

Maybe five hours isn't long enough to recount dramatic highlights of five generations of women and touch on major feminist issues of the past century because it all seems terribly rushed in "A Will of Their Own."

Too often, the story plays at fast-forward speed and the great historical events that supposedly influence the lives of the main characters turn out to be little more than wallpaper for a romance novel.

Lea Thompson ("Caroline in the City") stars as Amanda Stewart, whose grandmother and mother immigrated to Washington from England for a better life. Thompson plays the headstrong character from the age of 17 to 90. She tries mightily to infuse the part with vigor and nuance, which isn't easy as her character constantly ricochets from one personal calamity to the next.

Amanda's mother (Reiko Aylesworth) dies in childbirth when Amanda is 7. Her father, who was practically disowned by his wealthy Washington family for marrying beneath his station, dies 10 years later. Amanda returns to the home of her snooty grandparents, biding her time until she turns 21. Then she escapes to New York, where she can be independent and learn more about photography, her truest passion.

In New York, she finds lifelong friends, a true love (Thomas Gibson of "Dharma & Greg"), a budding feminist movement, sympathy for socialism, concern for sweatshop workers, discrimination against women employees and a way of getting to Europe to take pictures of World War I. Then she returns from overseas, faces new personal crises and weds. And that's just the first night. You need the commercial breaks to catch your breath.

So hurried is the storytelling that, in the second night, Amanda's granddaughter, Susan (Charlotte Ross of "Trinity"), turns her entire shallow life around and devotes herself to being a doctor for the poor after being caught up in a farmworkers union protest that is violently suppressed. Is there a script doctor in the house?

Steamy love scenes become shorthand for scenes in which the characters should have been allowed to develop and feel a growing, natural attraction.

Great attention is paid to the look and feel of each period but there are lapses in makeup. Some characters don't age for decades, then put on years practically overnight. In the second night, there are times when Amanda looks about as old as her daughter, Sarah (Paris Jefferson).

The story is clearly aimed at women viewers and avoids knee-jerk male-bashing. It honestly reflects a time when advocating social change seemed scarier, even to the oppressed, than the frightening conditions of the day. It's just too bad that in relating history and a multigenerational saga, it jumps too quickly to do justice to either.



A WILL OF THEIR OWN

NBC

A production of the Wolper Organization

in association with Warner Bros. Television

Executive producers: David Wolper, Mark Wolper, Lynn Roth

Producer: Susan Nanus, Elliot Friedgen

Director: Karen Arthur

Teleplay: Susan Nanus

TV story: Susan Nanus, Lynn Roth

Based on novel by: Susan Richard Shreve

Director of photography: Tom Neuwirth

Production designer: Rodger Maus

Composer: David Michael Frank

Set decorator: Natali Pope

Art decorator: Tom Fichter

Editor: Tina Hirsch

Costume designer: Judy Truchan

Special effects makeup: Matthew Mungle

Casting: Phyllis Huffman

Cast: Lea Thompson, Ellen Burstyn, Thomas Gibson, Charlotte Ross, John Shea, Eric McCormack, Sonia Braga, Faye Dunaway, Karen Anglin, Reiko Aylesworth, Devon Arielle Cahill, Tovah Feldshuh, Brittany Finamore, Paris Jefferson, Elizabeth Marvel, David New, Larry Pine, Barbara Robertson, Emmy Rossum, Diana Scarwid, Margaret Sophie Stein

Airdates: Sunday, Oct. 18, 8-11 p.m. and Monday, Oct. 19, 9-11 p.m.