Promises in the Dark

Directed by Jerome Hellman, Promises in the Dark follows recently-divorced physician Alexandra Kendall (Marsha Mason) as she begins treating a young woman (Kathleen Beller’s Buffy) afflicted with cancer – with the narrative primarily detailing Alexandra’s ongoing interactions with Buffy and her concerned parents (Susan Clark’s Fran and Ned Beatty’s Bud). Filmmaker Hellman, working from Loring Mandel’s screenplay, has infused Promises in the dark with the feel and tone of a rather generic made-for-television production, as the picture, which runs an often palpably overlong 118 minutes, suffers from an exceedingly deliberate pace and lack of style that cumulatively prevent the viewer from wholeheartedly embracing the material – which does, in turn, ensure that tearjerking elements within the third act are hardly as potent or affecting as Hellman has obviously intended. There’s little doubt, then, that Promises in the Dark benefits substantially from the top-tier efforts of a uniformly solid roster of performers, as the superb work by Mason and her talented costars goes a long way towards elevating the proceedings on a fairly frequent basis – with the watchable atmosphere heightened by a periodic inclusion of admittedly stirring scenes (eg Bud comforts a struggling Buffy in the middle of the night). By the time the bleak (and curiously abrupt) finale rolls around, Promises in the Dark has cemented its place as a just-passable drama that feels, for the most part, like it should be far more involving and emotionally affecting than it actually is.

**1/2 out of ****