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This sappy soap opera about a Vietnam vet who turns up 17 years after his plane went down in Cambodia stars Kris Kristofferson, in yet another turgid performance, as Jake Robbins. Due to malaria or some such, Jake is trundled by his Cambodian wife and children into Thailand, where he is immediately whisked stateside. Back home, Bobbins must come to terms with the life he left behind nearly two decades ago-the complication is that he was listed as dead some 14 years previous. His wife Sarah (JoBeth Williams) has re-married, his teenage son has a memorial shrine set up in his bedroom, and his father (Brian Keith) is now a widower who mostly fishes off his pier. How Bobbins works out his past is strictly grade Z melodrama. Of course, he sleeps with his now happily married wife-accompanied by a crackling fireplace and Henry Mancini's overwrought string arrangement, no less. One would think that this rather tricky moral dilemma might be treated in some fashion over the course of the film. But Jake's daddy cracks jokes about when the pair were kids, and Sarah's husband is just grateful that she still loves him. If that isn't enough, the latter half of the film has Jake accosting a senator on vacation about his desire to return to Thailand and retrieve his children (his Cambodian wife has died in the interim). Not only does the senator immediately champion Jake's cause, he goes to Thailand with Jake. Fat chance, Far from sympathizing with Jake's situation, we find ourselves hoping that the film will take a turn into black comedy-as a last ditch effort to save itself from drowning in its own syrup. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)