HALLMARK HALL OF FAME: FALLEN ANGEL

Nine-year-old Terry’s father, Mr. McQuinn, works as a caretaker in the Maine summer residence of a wealthy family from New York. Mr. McQuinn is dedicated to his job. Having lost his mother, Terry just wants to know his father better. When he sneaks into the Wentworth estate known as Serenity Cottage at Rose Point one day, his father lets him help for the day. The Wentworths evidently are coming for Christmas, something they have never done before. Mr. McQuinn says they don’t realize how miserable and cold Maine is in the winter.

As Terry is helping his father on that fateful day, the Wentworths arrive with their small four-year-old child, Katherine. The father is an ex-football star, full of joy and good will. The mother is a society lady, who is upset that the father is living on her money.

The father takes Katherine to the local hospital to give away toys. On the way back in the night with the cold and the snow, there is a car accident, and a mother and her child who are fixing their stranded car are killed. Although the police do not charge him, Charles Wentworth disappears into the snow.

Mr. McQuinn reprimands Terry for going with the Wentworths, and a voice-over says that the prayers were not answered. . . that Mr. Wentworth would be found and the little girl would survive.

Cut to years later. Terry comes home from college with his diploma and gets angry with his father for not even bothering to attend his graduation. His father is too busy with his job. Terry leaves home after the argument.

Years later, Terry, now played by Gary Senise, is a successful lawyer. He gets a call that his father is dying and returns to the small town in Maine, only to find that his father has died without their reconciliation. He also finds out that his father was trying to prepare Serenity Cottage for another Wentworth visit. This time it’s Katherine, and her small daughter, Lauren. What he thinks will be a day of cleaning up and selling his father’s possessions lingers for days as he meets Charles Wentworth’s brother, Warren, and eventually starts to put together the pieces of his life and helps to put together the pieces of Charles Wentworth’s and his daughter’s lives.

FALLEN ANGEL is beautifully produced, in the tradition of Hallmark Hall of Fame. It is a movie that deals with overcoming pain and suffering, dealing with the past, learning forgiveness, and seeing prayers answered in unexpected ways, many years after they were uttered. Although it’s a character study, it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Without sex or violence, there is a tangible sense of jeopardy and a concern for these characters. The meaning of Christmas is said to be the birth of Christ, and there is no shying away from the spiritual side of people’s lives.

This is a wonderful production, well worth seeing on November 23 when it airs on network television.

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