SimonJack This Christmas film and drama was based on the last Truman Capote work published before his death in 1984. The short story by the same title came out in 1983 as a gift booklet. Capote's writing output slowed to a trickle the past two decades of his life. He had become wealthy and was a celebrity who mostly lived a gay lifestyle immersed in alcohol and drugs. But in this autobiographical story he returns to his youth as a young boy given up by his divorced parents to be raised by cousins on his mother's side. The nostalgia comes through, mixed with initial dislike for his father and his dad's life in New Orleans. Three years after this TV movie was made, Hallmark would make a film of Capote's first story about his childhood. "A Christmas Memory" was published in 1956 and made into a film in 1997, starring Patty Duke as Capote's beloved elderly cousin, Sook. That was a superb performance. We don't know if this story is true or not. Here, his character, Buddy, goes to visit his father for one Christmas as a boy. Sook (here played by Julie Harris in a short beginning) helps him pack and takes him to the bus in their hometown in Alabama. The original (1956) story doesn't give a hint of Buddy visiting his father while he was living with his cousins. And, he had no recollection of his father in that film. So, this may have been a fictitious visit that Capote made up for another story. Or, it was something that had taken place but that he hadn't remembered or wanted to remember until his later years. Katherine Hepburn got top billing for this film, but her role of Cornelia Beaumont was a minor one. She was 87-years-old when this film came out. It was her last film before she died in 2003 at age 96. It must have been a difficult role, and her lines were hard to hear a couple of times. She plays an irascible spinster and matriarch of a wealthy New Orleans family. At one point, she tells Buddy (played by T.J. Lowther) that she never had children and she didn't like them. This may have been a close parallel to Hepburn's own life, which biographers and other writers have recorded as an unusual life of varied sex. This film hasn't been very well received, and it doesn't quite come across as a Christmas movie. It is more of a short chapter in a boy's life, but the focus being as much or more on his estranged father. That is the best part of this film and why I give it six stars. Buddy's dad is played superbly by Henry Winkler. It's a look at a different type of lifestyle, and a type of gigolo and flimflam man who hung around the fringes of the top society of New Orleans. This also reveals a striking aspect of Capote's childhood. His dad comments on his lack of interest in or knowledge of baseball, football, or other sports that boys play while growing up. As Buddy is in these two movies, Capote in real life was raised in the world of women. He never had a fatherly figure or healthy masculine influence in his youth. He didn't go to a military school, as the later film implies. Rather, after being raised in his early boyhood years by his elderly cousins, he then went to live with his mother in New York City. So, during his teen years he was exposed to party life and the seedier atmosphere surrounding the theater. Recalling that the setting of this film was around the early 1930s, I wondered about a scene toward the end. Miss Emily (played very well by Swoosie Kurtz) is talking with Buddy. He says that his father lied to him. She says that it's a normal thing of society and that people tell many lies. She gives various reasons. This clashed with what Buddy had learned up to the point in his life – being raised in rural Alabama. In my childhood of the 1940s we also were taught the importance of telling the truth – and not lying. So, I wonder if Capote was trying to make a distinction in his story between cultures. Was it the rich and people around them who told lies as a matter of course? Or, was it people of the big cities? Or a combination of the two? This, in contrast to the rest of America where truth still held ground?This movie probably wouldn't make anyone's list of good Christmas flicks. But, it does provide a rare look at one life style that survived by softly peddled scams. And in that, Henry Winkler gives a superb performance.

jjnxn-1 Minor reverie based on Truman Capote's short story about a trip he made as a youngster to meet the father who to that point was a stranger to him. What he finds is hardly the stuff of fairy tales. His father is a shyster living a flashy front but hollow beneath. On top of that he's a selfish, thoughtless, sometimes cruel man who has no idea how to relate to his lost needy little boy.The biggest deficit the film has is Henry Winkler in the lead. He's just not believable as a film-flam man who has the women of the town falling at his feet and pushing money in his pockets. He doesn't give a bad performance but he doesn't fit the part in the least. Then there's T.J. Lowther who plays the young protagonist, he has big mournful eyes and a quiet manner but he doesn't register enough on screen to keep the viewer interested in his plight.Fortunately the cast does include Swoosie Kurtz who makes anything she's in better as she does here and in a small role Julie Harris who does a great deal with her few minutes on screen. She's actually more memorable in her tiny bit that either father or son throughout the entire movie. The film has a lovely spic and span look, too clean to actually be real places but nice to look at nonetheless. This Hallmark holiday special marks the end of Katharine Hepburn's career. Playing Swoosie's rich aunt she is required to do little more than to grumble and grouse until loosening up a bit towards the end. By this time her palsy was severe enough to be ever present and impeded any real characterization but her star power is still there no matter how frail she is. It's certainly a more dignified exit from the stage than many of her contemporaries were able to manage. A respectable rendering of Capote's story, nothing magical but worth catching once to see a legend take her final bow.

Michael_Elliott One Christmas (1994) ** (out of 4)Made-for-TV adaptation of Truman Capote's short story about an 8-year-old boy (T.J. Lowther) who goes to New Orleans to stay with his estranged father (Henry Winkler). Soon the boy starts to realize that his dad is a con man and his ideas of what life is all about are changed. I'm not familiar with the short story that this here is based on so I really can't comment on how good or bad it is but it certainly didn't make for a very good movie. The movie really made me think of a story that might have had a major impact on Capote as a child but it's just important to him and there's nothing really in the story that is going to connect with everyone. From what I've read, the boy in this film is based on Capote's own experiences and I can see how this story might have played a major role in his life but to me there just wasn't much going on here. I found the various situations to be rather boring and never thought they really added up to much. We've basically got a child whose been told lies all his life and now he's having to face the truth and it's something he doesn't like. The con man father isn't much better because it's simply a role we've seen too many times before and nothing new is done with it here. There are a few good moments in the film including the ending but there's not enough to keep it entertaining throughout. I thought the performances were quite good with both Winkler and Lowther doing nice work and having a strong chemistry together. The one thing this film will be remembered for is featuring the final performance of screen legend Katharine Hepburn. She's not given too much to do but she gets a couple good scenes and it's certainly great seeing her. Those wishing to see Hepburn in her final role are going to be about the only ones who will want to sit through this as overall the film just never really adds up to much.

CatRodriguez I mostly hate x-mas season on TV, 'cause there are thousands of ridiculous movies about it. However, this is an exception: it's intelligently made, with good performances (Katharine Hepburn, want more?) and, although it handles feelings and sensibility (just like a Christmas story), it gets away from common places and cliches. Don't miss it next x-mas!