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Nicholas' Gift
1998
NICHOLAS' GIFT,
Part 2 of 3
r e v i e w: Selfless act
redeems a tragedy in 'Nicholas' Gift'
 Jamie
Lee Curtis and Alan Bates star in an extraordinary true-life
story of tragedy and redemption as Nicholas' Gift premieres
Sunday, April 26, on CBS.
 One of the finest TV movies of the season,
Nicholas' Gift relates a headline-making event from 1994,
when a California couple and their two children were struck by
devastating personal tragedy in Italy. As the story opens, Maggie
and Reginald Green (Curtis, Bates) are touring Rome and the outlying
area with their two children, 7-year-old Nicholas (Gene Wexler)
and 4-year-old Eleanor (Hallie Kate Eisenberg). All four are
having a marvelous time, and the trip is especially thrilling
for young Nicholas, who loves the myths and legends of antiquity.
One night, on the road, two men in a car
pull alongside the Greens' vehicle and fire inside. A bullet
strikes Nicholas, sending him into a coma from which he will
never recover.
After Nicholas is pronounced brain-dead,
the Greens set aside any question of bitterness and decide to
donate his organs, an act of compassion and forgiveness that
overwhelms the Italian people, who had one of the lowest organ
donation rates in all of Europe. Following the unselfishness
of the Greens, the Italian government passed legislation making
organ donation mandatory for Italians over the age of 16. ...
The Greens, with infant twins born since
Nicholas' death, traveled to Los Angeles and found an immediate
rapport with Curtis, and later with Bates, who lost a son of
his own years ago. "It was like meeting a new friend,"
Maggie Green says of meeting Curtis. "I wondered if she
might be kind of looking at me to get actors method kind of things,
but it wasn't that. It was more to reassure me that she was going
to look after this story. And I really felt that. Plus, she changed
the babies' diapers," she adds with a laugh.
Call it technique or inspiration, but Curtis
gives the performance of her career in Nicholas with a
portrayal of courage and boundless affection. It's almost inconceivable
to consider another actress in the role, so fully does Curtis
inhabit the character.
Bates is every bit as good as Reginald. Among
the predominantly Italian supporting cast, Anita Zagaria is stunning
as an anguished mother town between irrational guilt and maternal
relief when her ill son receives Nicholas' heart.
What makes Nicholas Gift such an overwhelming
emotional experience is the restraint with which the story is
told. Certainly there are elements here that invite sensationalism,
melodrama and schmaltz, but Christine Berardo's excellent teleplay
negotiates this tricky dramatic minefield with grace and style.
This exceptional drama is up against some
flashy sweeps-month competition, including Merlin on NBC
and the theatrical blockbuster Apollo 13 on ABC. That's
what VCRs are for.
Only a fool would pass up a Gift like
this one.
by John Crook, ©TVData Features Syndicate
Stephanie Salter, San Francisco Examiner
columnist, has covered the Greens since 1994. She travelled with
them to Rome and Anzio last winter when Nicholas' Gift
was being filmed. Visit the San Francisco Examiner, 23 April, for background
on the Greens and the filming of Nicholas' Gift.
Here is Stephanie Salter's Alan Bates quote:
"Bates, whose 19-year-old son had died eight years before,
also found himself analyzing -- and revisiting -- loss.' Just
getting everything into perspective takes time,' he said. 'It's
a matter of accepting the unacceptable.' On one hand, 'You don't
want your grief for the person you love to go away,' he said.
'But you have to live out your span, too, you have to carry
on, you can't become a martyr. So many people want to blame someone;
they look for it and focus on that.' That the Greens have done
the opposite, said Bates, gives their story 'a whole other resonance.
This film is an account of a very good thing that some people
did with a very violent moment,' he said. Then, echoing the cast
and crew of Nicholas' Gift, he added, 'I hope Reg and
Maggie will be happy with it.'"
TVGuide Nicholas highlights:
Jamie Lee Curtis and Alan Bates star
in this touching 1998 TV-drama, which is based on a true story.
On a 1994 family vacation in Italy, California couple Maggie
and Reg Green (Curtis and Bates) and their two children are attacked
by highway bandits. Gunfire erupts and the couple's son, Nicholas,
is shot in the head. Hours later, the devastated parents learn
the boy is brain dead. But the Greens are determined to see some
good emerge from their tragedy, and their resolve leads them
to a surprising and heroic decision. They request that their
son's organs be donated, an act that brings hope to seven seriously
ill Italian patients. Nicholas: Gene Wexler. Allessandra: Isabella
Ferrari. Anna: Anita Zagaria. Eleanor: Hallie Kate Eisenberg.
(CC) Made For TV.
Below: Alan Bates with Maggie Green, and twins Laura and
Martin Green.
 from BRIEF REVIEW: "If you have seasonal
rhinitis, prepare to have your sinuses purged by this TV movie....It
would be too much, except it really happened, and Gift
has the restraint to leave the blubbering to the viewer. My score:
8. (By Susan Stewart)
from SPECIAL
REPORT: a transplant doctor looks at medical series.
The diagnosis? TV is practicing some bad -- and destructive --
medicine.
There are 58,000 people waiting for organs
in this country ... In [Nicholas' Gift] we are shown a... realistic
picture of the struggle that accompanies such tragedies, as well
as the empowerment and restitution that organ donation can provide.
Interwoven is the story of the young Italian boy who receives
Nicholas's heart. If only TV could treat the subject of transplantation
with this much delicacy and accuracy more often, the critical
shortage of organs might be reduced. Ten people die every day
waiting for a transplant in this country. I only hope that after
people see Nicholas' Gift, families facing the passing
of a loved one will say yes to organ donation when they might
have said no." John F. Neylan, M.D., is president-elect
of the American Society of Transplant Physicians.
photo: Stephen Morley/CBS. Text excerpted
from TVGuide, 25 April 1998.
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