After all these years of hearing people talk smack about Hallmark movies, I finally have an informed opinion of one. (So glad to have the Hallmark logo in the corner the whole time.) I chose it when I didn't find anything more promising for Veterans Day.
In what I take to be then-present rural Georgia, Albert Sidney Finch (James Garner) is a newly retired judge. He learns from mutual acquaintance Billy Wendell (Norm Skaggs) that "Gee" Pennywell (Bill Cobbs), Albert's former friend, has been offered the Congressional Medal of Honor for taking out a WWII German platoon but bitterly refused. Government rep Michael Waring (Laurence Fishburne) doesn't want to take no for an answer. Altho Albert hasn't spoken with Gee in 30 years, he tries to reach an understanding one way or another.
It's too bad the basic summary doesn't mention any women, because three have major parts in multiple scenes. Judith Ivey plays Terry Novis, Albert's burgeoning romantic interest, whose exact role in the conflict escapes me, thanks in part to a lack of extensive online information about the story. (The John William Corrington novella on which it's based doesn't get its own Wikipedia page either.) Ruby Dee plays Rowena, who's not officially a maid but helps look after Albert when not giving him a piece of her mind. And Jo Andersen plays Loreen, Billy's wife, who has trouble getting along with him as he hesitates to tell her about his health condition.
Why the "racial" tag? Well, characters suggest that Congress prioritized Gee for diversity's sake. It would certainly explain Michael's determination. But one of Gee's reasons for declining pertains to perceived military racism.
When he finally opened up about it, I thought I'd made a mistake. Were we to understand that most veterans suck? In a way that's hard to believe? Thankfully, the situation turns out not to be quite what Gee thought. I doubt past or present soldiers mind the actual message.
The ending is sufficiently happy but not sappy. I guess Hallmark did better than usual this time.
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