Long Things
Bernie Fine (D.W. Moffett - An Unexpected Love) was born and raised a New Yorker, he loves the city, so when his boss at Wolff's department store wants him to head to San Francisco to over see a new store he is not too happy. But it is there he meets single mother Elizabeth O'Reilly (Tracy Pollan - The Baron and the Kid) when her young daughter ends up getting lost in the store. They date and they marry and after 6 months they receive the good news that Elizabeth is pregnant. But joy leads to a series of traumas as first Elizabeth's ex, Chandler (Darrell Larson - Perry Mason: The Case of the Lady in the Lake), shows up to cause trouble and then after giving birth Elizabeth is diagnosed with cancer.
So here we have "Danielle Steel's Fine Things", to give it its full title, a story of a handsome young man meeting and falling in love with an attractive single mum and after happiness troubles come their way. But wait I haven't finished because the synopsis I wrote actually only covers the first third of "Fine Things" and there is a whole lot more going on in this movie after that. In fact there is too much going on as whilst "Fine Things" is by no means a short movie it becomes overly convoluted as the storyline evolves and evolves and evolves some more to being something very different to how it started.
Now in truth having watched quite a few Danielle Steel movies none of this took me by surprise as this saga of romance and melodrama is not unusual but the amount here does border on the extraordinary. In some ways it reminded me of the good old days of the soap-opera "Dallas" where someone like Bobby and Pam would get a moment of joy then someone would come out of the woodwork to spoil things and that story would run for the whole series. It has that sort of storyline which rather than just focussing on the romantic melodrama of Bernie and Elizabeth evolves into what happens afterwards as well.
Everything about "Fine Things" is very soap-opera-ish from the charming but often corny dialogue, romantic scenes to some comically cliche accents, Jeanne Hepple as nanny Mrs. Pippin's Irish accent is cheesily cliche. What that also means is that we have a good looking cast with D.W. Moffett looking good be it in pyjamas or tuxedo. And Tracy Pollan is attractive and nice as Elizabeth although it has to be said considering she is diagnosed with cancer the authenticity of the illness is left down to a ropey looking wig and some heavy shadowing when it comes to make-up.
What this all boils down to is that "Fine Things" is exactly what you expect from a Danielle Steel movie and that means it is not for everyone especially when this one is one of the most convoluted I have come across.
Tags: Danielle Steel Movies
