Cheryl's Cheesy Changes
Soap-opera/ chick-flick/ romantic melodrama - those 3 things sum up Danielle Steel's "Changes" to perfection, an early 90s movie made for women who enjoy soap opera style romantic melodrama. Now that certainly means that "Changes" is not for everyone and I have to say that even though I don't mind watching these Danielle Steel movies from the 90s this one is now cheesier than ever. In fact in a strange way the cheesiness of "Changes" makes it perversely enjoyable from the OTT romantic scenes to the convoluted drama which ensues.
News anchor Melanie Adams (Cheryl Ladd - Crash: The Mystery of Flight 1501) is asked by her boss to follow a story about a sick child needing a critical transplant, it is a report which leads her to L.A. and meeting doctor Peter Hallam (Michael Nouri - Captain America). They find that they have things in common both being single parents and before long start to date despite living 3000 miles apart in different cities leading to Melanie taking the brave decision to quit her job and relocate to Los Angeles with her daughters to be with Peter. But it is not an easy change of life from work issues to problems with Peter's children as well as the presence of his late first wife still hanging around to make life complicated even when they get married.
So after a build up which sees Melanie and Peter fall in love despite living 3000 miles apart we get to what is a familiar storyline which is the complications which come from two families coming together and with this being a movie for women of course most of the complications fall for Melanie to deal with. These problems range from the typical such as Melanie's daughters not wanting to relocate to California and Peter's daughter being awkward and obnoxious towards Melanie. But we also get more outlandish issues from Peter's eldest son falling for one of Melanie's daughters and she ends up pregnant to the fact that whilst Peter's first wife died the home is full of her stuff as well as her housekeeper who of course makes Melanie feel unwelcome. Considering that "Changes" only lasts 95 minutes it crams a lot in especially when almost the entire first 30 minutes is all about Melanie and Peter falling in love.
As for the acting well there is only one word to describe it and that is typical. All the actors are good looking and so look good together especially when the romantic music starts playing. But it has to be said that this does add to the soap opera style cheesiness of it all. I suppose I should also mention that whilst back in 1991 the stars of the "Changes" were Cheryl Ladd and Michael Nouri it does also feature a very young Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Peter's youngest son.
What this all boils down to is that not only is "Changes" typical of an early 90s Danielle Steel movie but now seems even cheesier than most. It isn't a movie for everyone but if you were once a fan of soap opera style romances then it might still entertain or possibly amuse for the wrong reasons. The thing is that whilst cheesy "Changes" still entertained me, mostly for the wrong reasons but some times wrong ends up what you really needed.
Tags: Danielle Steel Movies
