WHEN YOUR LOVER LEAVES

US, 1983, 100 minutes, Colour.
Valerie Perrine, Betty Thomas, David Aykroyd, Dwight Schultz, Ed O'Neill.
Directed by Jeff Bleckner.

When Your Lover Leaves is a minor American telemovie, focusing on a woman, her relationship with a married man, the collapse of the relationship and its effect on her. Valerie Perrine does her best to make the central character credible - and while, at times, she might get some sympathy, it is also hard to sympathise with her because of her neurotic behaviour. The film was produced by Ron Howard and Henry Winkler - who have produced better movies. However, as a starter look at the situation and the response of one person, the film has its point.

1.Impact of the film? Credibility of the plot, characters, behaviour?

2.Californian settings, affluent world? The world of Rhonda? Of professional people in California? Authentic atmosphere? Musical score?

3.The title, its tone and focus?

4.The film as a portrait of Rhonda: Valerie Perrine's screen presence? Her relationship with the married man, his breaking off, return to his wife? The effect on Rhonda, her confiding in her best friend, advice? The background of her work, making the soups? Her emotional collapse? Depression, keeping to herself? Her friend trying to arrange dates? Her obsession with her lover, the phone calls, her presence, his wife? Her trying to come to terms with herself? The advice? The reaction to new men in her life? Yet her persistence in pursuing her lover? The meetings, the clashes? Her future? Portrait of a depressed woman and her neurotic behaviour?

5.The husband, the affair with Rhonda, the way in which he broke it off? Returning to his wife? The tense relationship with her, the tennis matches, social outings, her acidic remarks, his response? The reaction of friends? Rhonda's phone calls, the appointments, his seeing her? Trying to extricate himself? How sensitive to her? The future of his marriage? The portrait of his wife, her dominance, the fact that her husband left her, her strategies in getting him back, the tennis match and the meals and her humiliation of him, her disdain of Rhonda?

6.The portrait of the friend, worldly attitudes, listening to Rhonda, helping her to come out of herself, making appointments and dates? Sound advice or not?

7.The other men in Rhonda's life, relationships, love, the possibility of some kind of love and commitment?

8.The purpose of this kind of telemovie - entertainment, portrait of a woman, exploration of a contemporary moral situation?