In this affecting made-for-TV Lifetime-aired movie based on the 1996 book by Leroy Aarons, Golden Globe and Emmy nominee Sigourney Weaver plays Mary Griffith, a real-life California woman who lives in comfortable Walnut Creek in the late 1970s with her close-knit Christian family—husband Bob (Henry Czerny) and sons Bobby and Ed (Ryan Kelley, Austin Nichols). High school student Bobby successfully hides his same-sex preference until the secret becomes too difficult to bear and he tells Ed. Concerned for his younger brother's welfare, Ed informs Mary, who considers homosexuality “an abomination.” Mary believes that Bobby can change if he just sets his mind to it, so she fixes him up on dates and sends him to a therapist and a support group. Wanting to please his mother and his God, Bobby initially goes along, but eventually drops out of school to live with a cousin in Portland, where he works and dates another young man, until years of guilt and shame drive him to seek resolution. At this point, the story shifts to Mary, who meets the more open-minded Reverend Whitsell (Dan Butler) and learns to reconcile her religious faith with her son's sexual orientation. Director Russell Mulcahy handles the subject with sensitivity, while Weaver makes a potentially off-putting character sympathetic. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)
Prayers for Bobby
A&E, 91 min., not rated, DVD: $19.95 Volume 26, Issue 2
Prayers for Bobby
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