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The Miracle Worker

The Miracle Worker

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $13.49
Product Info Reviews

Features:
  • Color
  • Closed-captioned


Description:

Fans of "Pepsi Girl" Hallie Kate Eisenberg will find her scarcely recognizable as the silent, sullen young Helen Keller. Blind, deaf, and mute, Helen is unable to communicate with her family except through temper tantrums. She is allowed to eat with her hands, tear buttons off the clothes of others, and even knock over the baby's cradle. She is barely pacified with candy and headed toward institutionalization when Annie Sullivan enters her life. Plagued with vision problems of her own and orphaned at a young age, Sullivan has the right mix of steeliness and empathy to turn her young student's behavior around and teach her language. Allison Elliot (The Spitfire Grill) disappears into the role of the teacher whose job is made tougher by Helen's imperious plantation-owner father (David Strathairn) and soft-centered mother when they doubt her authority and challenge her methods. This Disney television remake of the Oscar-winning 1962 original--based on William Gibson's play--lacks some of the emotional impact of its predecessor, especially in the climactic pump scene. Eisenberg often seems a little stiff as the wildcat Helen, but Elliott and the able supporting cast make this 88-minute update worthwhile. Ages 7 and up. --Kimberly Heinrichs
© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates