China Rose (1983)

Wonderful character development!

Really Surprised!

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Ali MacGraw can't act, c'mon give me a break. One reviewer must be a Jr. High drop-out with no taste. MacGraw and Scott both do a fine job in China Rose. After all it is listed as a T.V. movie and that should be taken into consideration. Briefly, man goes to China to look for his son, lady is assigned to help him, romance sort of develops, but must take a back seat to the search. The rest you must watch to find out for yourself.I didn't have enough lines, so I will add the fact that there is a dark secret to be revealed but again you must watch the movie and I recommend you do. I found it on Amazon and added to my collection because I am a huge Ali MacGraw fan, no matter what some say. Yes, she was older in this film, but all of us age or die, so don't judge someone because they are aging.

She is such a terrible presence(can't call her an actor), no skills or talent at all, and she ruins any film she is in other than some early ones that traded off her Irish good looks when she was a gorgeous young girl. Forced, self-conscious, totally unnatural, no emotional range at all, and so in contrast to the great George C. Scott, she was a total embarrassment. And, her lame attempts to speak Chinese were out-loud laughable. I guess they got a famous name cheap here, as her declining looks were very evident. One upside.....her looks are fast getting closer to her "talent" and one day they will be the same, if she ever works again after this.The film story was about a rich American industrialist seeking his long lost idealistic son in China, and the confusing, conflicting and "inscrutable" things he went through to finally see what happened to him. McGraw was his paid, Chinese-speaking, American guide at first but lo and behold, this is Hollywood mind you, she became something else entirely by film's end, no matter how unlikely it all was.A mediocre film at best, as Scott could walk by and you would still know he is one of the greats, but McGraw ruined it for being anything more than a 2 hour diversion.

I thought "Any movie with George C. Scott has to have something on the ball...!" I was wrong.This is the only movie that has moved me enough to want to write a review for IMDb.There's not a single good performance in the movie. Scott's is best, clocking in at "not too bad" which is a gross disappointment for an actor of his caliber. Ali MacGraw is painful to watch. It goes downhill from there, one awkward scene with stilted dialog after another.Where was the director? Busy having lunch during the whole shooting? About the only positive reaction I have is the photography, giving a nice flavor of mainland China and Hong Kong.I am so glad I didn't actually pay money to watch this.

Besides the somewhat credible explanation of how his son "went bad," this was poor, even by TV movie standards. The relationship between Scott and McGraw is unbelievable and often embarrassing, the plot generally predictable, and except for a couple of flashes by Mr. Scott, the acting ranges from unremarkable to downright poor. There's no romantic chemistry between the two leads, the only apparent motivations for them getting romantically involved appears to be that they're the two leads and they're both widowed. Most of the plot "turns" are easily predictable, and the acting questionable enough to wonder whether everybody was supposed to be a bad liar, or the lines were just being delivered poorly. Probably the best that can be said for it was that it was only 88 minutes.