Letting Go (Telefilm)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Telefilm: C+
While John Ritter was still an A-list TV star with a high
likeability rating, he did telefilms after Three’s Company (reviewed
elsewhere on this site) and even squeezed in Hooperman. One of the more passive entertainments he
showed up in was Letting Go (1985), where he suffers serious problems
with the death of his wife. He goes to
a feel-good group to deal with his problems when he meets another woman (Sharon
Gless) depressed that her longtime boyfriend has left her for a non-actress in
a popular hit TV commercial.
In the ad, the other woman is trapped in a burning
building, until a fireman shows up.
Unfortunately, he uses the wrong greasy hand lotion and she slips and
falls to her death. Instead of
celebrating her fictional fate in the ad over and over, she is simply in too
much pain to deal with it. The boy
meets/loses/gets girl formula is all here, but it is done with some amusing
comic twists, and even when they do not work, they at least try. Max Gail (Barney Miller) co-stars as
part of that group and we get an amusing cameo from a then-unknown Keanu Reeves
as one of two teens driving Ritter crazy at his home theater job. This is good, light entertainment made
more poignant with Ritter’s loss too soon, the reason this
TV movie is getting issued to begin with.
The full frame image at 1.33 X 1 is the TV ratio and it is
just fine for what it is. The sound is
Dolby Digital 2.0 that sounds barely stereo, but is passable. Extras include text quote on “love &
loss” and cats profiles of Ritter & Gless.
I give BFS credit for not pushing this with Reeves name. Letting Go is worth a look if you
like good, light entertainment.
- Nicholas Sheffo
