Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

***SPOILERS*** Sad and extremely touching movie about a family facing the death of their 8 year old son Ben, Joshua Harris, an hemophiliac who contracted AIDS in a tainted blood transfusion. Ben who has less then a year to live with his parents Claire & Greg Madison, Linda Hamilton & Richard "John-Boy" Thomas, trying to make Ben's last days of life filled with enough love and understanding-the death experience-that would make him forget what's soon to take him away from them.Not at all easy to watch but like Ben were made to understand that death isn't the end but a new beginning for those, that's all of us, who end up facing it and it's only the living that suffer in losing a loved one to it with the person that's soon to be gone being been released from the suffering that he or she is going through. By the time that death finally overtakes little Ben he as well as everyone around him have accepted his fate knowing that his suffering-From the ravages of the AIDS virus- has finally ended for him as well as themselves.Not as dark and depressing as most films-Like "Love Story"-about a person facing death with us knowing what the end would be almost as soon as the movie opens with Ben's parents and friends of the family attending his funeral. It's in the long flashback that gets us to know the causes of Ben's death that really makes the movie so touching and able to sit through. Eevn Ben's dad Greg loses it late in the film by suffering sever depression at home and at his job as a home builder over his son Ben's fate and almost ending up in the hospital himself. It takes an extreme amount of strength and courage for Greg and his wife Claire to see the whole thing,their son Ben's impending death, through with the kindly and also suffering from depression and sleep deprivation Uncle George, Ned Beatty, a carpenter by trade constructing Ben's coffin for the brave and tragic little boy's final sendoff.

I saw this on TV when I was about nine. I wasn't allowed to watch The Terminator when I was that age so all I knew Linda Hamilton from was Beauty and the Beast (This was before T2). It's kind of my archetype for what I think of as an 80's Disease of the Week TV movie and it was pretty effective. I think if I watched it now it would be a good indicator of how perceptions of the disease have changed. The moment that really got to me as a child was when the grandfather (I think it was Ned Beatty) was building a coffin in the garage while the kid was still alive. It was hard as nine year old to be confronted with my own mortality.

This is far and away one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen without question. Linda Hamilton gives one of the most touching and poignant performances of her career; in fact, the entire cast is outstanding!!!! I recently ordered the DVD, and received it yesterday, Nov. 30th, and have already watched it several times; it is a movie I could never tire of. It should serve as an anthem for all parents of seriously ill children no matter the nature of the illness, and a guideline of how to cope and accept. Bravo to all who were a part of it!!!!! This movie is truly a gift!!!!! This is a must see movie for all parents; no, for all families, because it has such a precious and loving message to share with the audience. I first became acquainted with this movie on Movie Plex on True Story Saturday several years ago, and it has stayed with me ever since. I LOVE IT!!!!

superb performance by young Ben. Excellent also by parents especially Greg, Richard Thomas.