Film

A Question of Love

Name: A Question of Love
Genre: Drama, TV Movie
Released: 1978
Cast: Gena Rowlands, Jane Alexander, Ned Beatty, Clu Gulager, Bonnie Bedelia

Drama

A 1978 TV movie about a lesbian mother fighting for custody of her son. Gena Rowlands delivers a quietly powerful performance as a woman forced to defend her right to love and parent. It's tender, devastating, and urgently political—a film that mattered then and matters now, showing the human cost of prejudice through intimate, unflinching drama.

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Kramer vs. Kramer1979

A custody battle that excavates marriage, parenting, and the weight of being judged. Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep are extraordinary, and it explores how love and law collide with devastating clarity.

But It centres a father's perspective and can feel more interested in a man learning to do laundry than in systemic unfairness. Some find its emotional beats calculated.

Ordinary People1980

A family fractured by grief, anger, and unspoken resentments. Robert Redmond directs with surgical precision, and the film trusts you to sit with unbearable silences and small, devastating moments.

But It's bleak and inward. If you want warmth or resolution, this isn't it. The upper-middle-class setting may feel distant.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore1974

Ellen Burstyn is luminous as a widow rebuilding her life and motherhood after loss. Scorsese made a tender, funny film about a woman's agency that never feels small or domestic in scope.

But It's a 1970s road movie with all the pacing that implies—some scenes meander. The ending pivots in a way that can feel surprising or jarring.

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Execution of Private Slovik1974

Like *A Question of Love*, it's a 1970s TV movie that takes a political/social question and asks you to live through one person's legal, moral, and personal devastation. Both trust the audience to understand that a verdict in court isn't the same as truth.

A TV movie starring Eddie Albert and Van Johnson about an American soldier court-martialed for desertion. It's a precise, morally rigorous examination of how institutions crush individuals, and how one man's defiance matters. Urgently relevant to questions of conscience and consequence.

But It's brutal, bleak, and offers no redemption. The subject matter—execution—is grim and unrelenting, with no comfort offered.

The Best Little Girl in the World1981

A TV movie that takes adolescent eating disorders seriously, with Eva Marie Saint and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It's unflinching about illness and parental love, made with real intelligence and care.

But The subject matter is painful. It can feel dated in its approach, and the pacing reflects network TV conventions of the era.

The Best Little Girl in the World poster

Something Wild1986

Jeff Daniels and Melanie Griffith in a film about desire, deception, and the self you hide. Jonathan Demme makes something kinetic and strange that's also unexpectedly humane about why people lie.

But Tone shifts aggressively partway through. Some find the tonal whiplash clever; others find it alienating or manipulative.

An Unmarried Woman1978

Jill Clayburgh is superb as a woman discovering herself after divorce. Paul Mazursky's film is funny, sexy, and unsentimental about love, autonomy, and the privilege of reinvention.

But It's very much of its moment—1970s feminist cinema with all the dating montages that implies. Some find the pacing indulgent or the resolution uncertain in ways that frustrate rather than intrigue.

Tender Mercies1983

Robert Duvall and Tess Harper in a quiet film about grace, redemption, and parenting after addiction. Bruce Beresford lets silence and small gestures carry enormous weight. It's devastatingly good.

But Minimalism taken to extremes—if you want narrative momentum or big emotional moments, you'll be disappointed. It moves at a funeral pace.

In the Bedroom2001

Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek as parents navigating grief and rage after their son is murdered. It's composed, literary, and genuinely wrecking without ever becoming melodrama. One of the best grief films ever made.

But It's slow, dark, and doesn't offer comfort. The middle act can feel repetitive if you're not buying into its meditative rhythm.

Mask1985

Cher, unglamorous and magnificent, plays the mother of a teenager with severe facial deformities. Peter Bogdanovich's film is about maternal love refusing to accept limits. Genuinely moving without being saccharine.

But Cher's performance divides viewers sharply. The film can feel manipulative if you resist its earnestness, and the 1980s soundtrack dates it visibly.

Lianna1983

Both centre a woman fighting for the right to her own life against a legal and social system built to deny it. Both are made with an attention to how her interior world—her shame, her doubt, her determination—is as important as the plot.

John Sayles' film about a woman awakening to her sexuality and leaving her marriage. It's achingly real, funny, and focused on quiet moments of self-discovery. Made with integrity and without fanfare, it refuses melodrama or victimhood.

But It's low-budget and understated in ways that can feel slow. Some queer viewers have found it dated in its portrayal of lesbian community and the ending quietly melancholy rather than triumphant.

Madame X1966

Both centre on a mother's love being weaponized against her, and a woman judged irrevocably by society. But where *A Question of Love* whispers, *Madame X* screams. They're asking the same devastating question in completely different dialects.

Lana Turner in a delirious melodrama about a woman destroyed by circumstance and hiding her past. It's trashy, overwrought, and utterly gripping—a film that says the same thing as *A Question of Love* but in capital letters and with violins. Pure emotional excess.

But It's of a completely different register—high-gloss, classically melodramatic, and unironic in ways that can feel laughable. If you want restraint or realism, this is its opposite.