Surviving

This was interesting. I might have seen it on TV back in 1985, but I didn't really remember it. Powerful drama about teen suicide and its aftermath. Full of stars of the day, including Molly Ringwald and River Phoenix. Excellent for a TV movie and well done, by any movie standards. May need the tissues.

This is a very long TV movie (about 2 1/2 hours) which is split down the middle by shocking events that effectively split the movie in two. I spends a long time developing main characters that it abruptly drops, and I'm not sure it ever really recovers. It has an impressive cast ... Ellen Burstyn, Paul Sorvino, Marsha Mason, Heather O'Rourke and a very young River Phoenix are all on board.