Anne Bancroft gave a superior performance as the grandmother of 4 abandoned grandchildren who come to her home out of desperation.
Left alone in a car, the children make their way to a great aunt only to find that she has died and has left a daughter, Bonnie Bedelia as the quintessential spinster, a devout Catholic, who attends mass regularly but who will not keep the 2 boys in her home. Bedelia, in a brief role, captures the heart and sole of this woman brilliantly. Others may find her performance somewhat comic in nature. She carries herself as Ruth Buzzi did on the TV hit Laugh-In.
It is Bancroft who depicts a mean, vicious grandma who is gradually soothed by grandchildren desperate for a family life and desperate for love.
Finally admitting that she wants them but can't afford them financially or to fail them as she did her children, her last minute change of heart (though expected) at the bus stop is heartwarming.
A wonderful film describing family values and dysfunctionalism.
Left alone in a car, the children make their way to a great aunt only to find that she has died and has left a daughter, Bonnie Bedelia as the quintessential spinster, a devout Catholic, who attends mass regularly but who will not keep the 2 boys in her home. Bedelia, in a brief role, captures the heart and sole of this woman brilliantly. Others may find her performance somewhat comic in nature. She carries herself as Ruth Buzzi did on the TV hit Laugh-In.
It is Bancroft who depicts a mean, vicious grandma who is gradually soothed by grandchildren desperate for a family life and desperate for love.
Finally admitting that she wants them but can't afford them financially or to fail them as she did her children, her last minute change of heart (though expected) at the bus stop is heartwarming.
A wonderful film describing family values and dysfunctionalism.