Tuesdays with Morrie (3 Stars)

Mitch Albom is a sports reporter based in Detroit. He reports on sporting events such as football, baseball and lawn tennis, but most of his writing is about the sports stars themselves. That's more interesting to his shallow minded readers. They want to read about scandals rather than sports performance.

Mitch lives for his job to the exclusion of all else. He has a girlfriend, a backing singer called Janine, but she feels neglected. His job always has priority over his personal life.

One day he sees his former professor, Morrie Schwartz, on television. He's suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and doesn't have long to live. It's a disease I'd never heard of, so I had to read up on it. ALS involves the slow loss of muscular control. In the early stage people lose the ability to walk and use their hands. As it progresses they can no longer eat. In the final stages they're unable to breathe. There's no known cure for ALS. Treatment is only available to combat the symptoms, not the illness itself.

The exact cause of the disease is unknown. In some cases it seems to be genetically transmitted. It affects mostly older people, 60 and above. It's rare in people under 40. After the disease begins, death usually ensues in 12 to 18 months.

Mitch was close to his professor at university. When he graduated he promised to stay in touch. That was sixteen years ago, and he hasn't seen him since. He spontaneously takes a day off work to visit Morrie, who lives in Boston. It's a two-hour journey by plane. Morrie is still in good spirits and welcomes his former student. He thinks he still has things to teach him about life and love.

Over the next few weeks Mitch visits Morrie every Tuesday, even though his work suffers. He's temporarily suspended from his job, but it's more important for him to spend time with Morrie. He records their conversations on cassette tapes, because he never wants to forget Morrie's words of wisdom.

As you can see, I've given this film a relatively low rating. If I were judging it objectively, I wouldn't be able to fault it in anyway. I can't rate it any higher because of my personal problems. I find films distasteful that show a realistic illness. Maybe my readers will like this film. I don't.