Emma's Wish (1998)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Let's be realistic.

Beautiful, moving film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The best part of this movie was Joanna Kerns, she was beautiful and made the movie most enjoyable. The story was one that everyone could relate to, the wish to be young again and have the chance to correct mistakes we have made in our earlier life. Emma/Mame has this opportunity and the writing, while sentimental at times never becomes a cliché or schmaltzy. Emma is in a nursing home and through some magic she is granted her youth for one month. She uses the month to help her daughter who is having a personal crises and to set right mistakes she has made. The outcome is believable and not contrived, but will make you come away wanting to get your loved ones close to you. When this movie is on Lifetime and you have the chance, give it a look, it will brighten your day.

Aired on French TV under the title "Le Voeu de Toute Une Vie", this film has a lot going for it, and not least its leading star Joanna Kerns who appears incredibly attractive. Apart from this very positive point the film, a sort of cocktail including elements from "Peggy Sue Got Married", "Forever Young" and "Big", keeps the spectator in full emotion for its 90 minute duration. Indeed, I found it even more agreable to watch than those three preceding films even though I like them as well. The story is fairly simple and there are no plot twists but as in many families there are problems, and the possibility of rejuvenation introduces countless possibilities to solve the marital problems. Della Reese is always a pleasure to watch and is another larger-than-life character. I will not narrate the plot here but suffice it to say that it is sufficiently emotional to produce watery eyes and as such is bound to appeal to sentimental-minded viewers such as myself. Picture quality is fine and the soundtrack, if no great work of musical art, is in no way to be scoffed at. Recommended for those in need of strong emotion !

I had the same feeling as the other reviewer - this was far better than I expected. In fact, I had the feeling that if this were an earlier decade when more intimate movies were released to theaters, this should have been exhibited widely in theaters.The actors are all splendid but it's the writing that was so effective -time after time our expectations of sentimentality were NOT met in favor of a more difficult, more affecting and more real development in the plot.Everything felt very mature, very well-thought out. The plot developments really did come from the character development - rather than done melodramatically.Some endings in this film were happy; others were not. There was a very nice mix of humor and suspense, of revelation and realistic reactions to revelations.The actress playing Kelly Short was particularly good in the relatively thankless role of officious guardian. Kerns and Kozak were wonderful - though I thought Kozak's character could have been written a little more charmingly (she's really a pill). The children were played very well - and Kozak's husband was very well and winningly portrayed.In the end, it's Kerns' film - and she carries it off wonderfully.I saw this on Lifetime, which I don't ordinarily watch. I find the films shown on that network to be sometimes terribly predictable - and sometimes gloppily sentimental. This was neither - often surprising and very well worth watching.

Given that this was shown on CBS Sunday Night (after Tetched by an Angel) and co-starred Della Reese, I was expecting a treacly schmaltz-fest. In fact, the only reason I watched it was all the other networks preempted their regular programming. I was pleasantly surprised. Joanna Kerns was her usual quietly likeable, effective self, and Harley Kozak was as good as ever. While the "very special" (meaning stickily sentimental) plot elements were present as expected, the viewer was not drenched in pathos like would normally happen with this sort of movie. The whole affair was understated and entertaining.