CBS (Sun., April 25, 9 p.m. ET)
There's nothing fancy about Plainsong. Nothing too exciting, either. But if you're willing to settle for a fairly affecting small-town tale, try this Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation of Kent Haruf's 1999 bestseller.
The film follows several story lines at an ambling pace. Tom Guthrie (Aidan Quinn), a high school teacher in Colorado, takes care of sons Ike (Mick Hazen) and Bobby (Cody Arens), while his depressed wife, Ella (Megan Follows), drifts away from the family. Adding to Tom's woes is insolent Russell Beckman (Zachery Bryan), a troublemaking student with obnoxiously supportive parents. Meanwhile, pregnant teen Victoria Roubideaux (America Ferrera) is deserted by her boyfriend and thrown out by her nasty mother. Victoria seeks help from teacher Maggie Jonas (Rachel Griffiths from Six Feet Under), who arranges for the girl to live with the McPheron brothers (Geoffrey Lewis and William Andrews), a pair of bachelor ranchers up in years and set in their ways. It's a most unlikely situation, but one that yields a few poignant and gently comic moments.
In the novel, Tom and Maggie eye each other occasionally before graduating to the bedroom. Onscreen their relationship is all talk with a hint of something more. Maggie asks Tom if he wants his wife to come back. "I can't say," he replies. Come on, fella, at least give her a "maybe not." You want to reach out and push the two teachers together, but this film isn't comfortable with big scenes. Even a late brawl involving Tom and the Beckmans ends in an embarrassing draw.
The most memorable character here is Iva Stearns (Marian Seldes), a salty old shut-in who befriends the Guthrie boys. She's definitely plainspoken.
DRAMA
Showtime (Sun., April 25, 8 p.m. ET)
Kidnapping really shouldn't be treated lightly, but you have to laugh at the criminal ineptitude on display in this enjoyable account of the 1963 abduction of Frank Sinatra Jr.
Barry Keenan (David Arquette), a failed salesman who sees celebrity-snatching as a business venture, hatches the plot but can't pull it off alone. So the mastermind recruits a couple of ambivalent confederates: his mother's boozing boyfriend, John Irwin (William H. Macy), and Joe Amsler (Ryan Browning), an old classmate with a dead-end job.
As the team bungles the caper at every turn, Arquette makes Keenan's desperation consistently funny but a little sad, and Macy gives his weak character a touch of dignity to go with his hypocritical moralizing.
Thomas Ian Nicholas seems too wide-eyed as young Sinatra, but the victim's naïveté mixes amusingly with his captors' stupidity. This is a "major kidnapping," Keenan declares. "Of me?" Frank Jr. asks.
COMEDY
Genesis Awards (Animal Planet, April 25, 3 p.m. ET)
Sean Astin and Alicia Silverstone help honor media folks who raise awareness of issues affecting animals.
High School Reunion (WB, April 25, 9 p.m. ET)
Are the Cheerleader and the Quarterback in love for the long haul? Will the Jock reunite with his ex? Find out in the season finale.
Punk'd(MTV, April 25, 10 p.m. ET)
Guess the joke was on us. Ashton Kutcher said this prank series was shutting down, but here's the third-season premiere.
Jockey (HBO, April 26, 8 p.m. ET)
A documentary on three jockeys at Louisville's Churchill Downs shows that horse racing is no joy ride.
Will & Grace (NBC, April 29, 9 p.m. ET)
In the season finale, Karen gets hitched in Las Vegas and guest star Jennifer Lopez sings at the wedding.
Lindsey Haun The actress, 19, plays a struggling singer very much like the young Britney Spears in ABC Family's April 25 movie Brave New Girl. It's executive-produced by Britney and her mom, Lynne, and based on their 2001 novel A Mother's Gift.
ON MEETING BRITNEY Sweeping into the final auditions in L.A. last year, Spears, 22, who had the last word in casting, "just looked so perfect, it was like the pages of a magazine walking across the room. But then she put her head down and her hair behind her ears and smiled. She was almost shy."
ON HER OWN POP CAREER
As lead vocalist with the L.A.-based rock band 7th Fall, "I'd love to have enough of a following that it makes it exciting to play little clubs." Not that she didn't enjoy doing the big Britney-style number that concludes the movie: "God, it's hard—but so much fun! I can completely understand why she does it."
ON STARDOM
Although Haun has been acting since she was 5 and—like onetime Mouseketeer Britney—was seasoned by TV jobs with Disney (Movie Surfers), she's amazed at the media buzz that chases the singer. When Entertainment Tonight taped the pair at the audition, Haun got a bit tired of posturing for the cameras. "Britney said, 'Yeah, welcome to my life!' I was like, 'Yeah, seriously!' "
ON DATING JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
Oops—that was Britney. Haun is coy about her dating life but admits she dreams of her wedding. "It's sick how much I have it all planned out, the flowers, the chairs. My guy friends get freaked."
- Contributors:
- Terry Kelleher,
- Nancy Matsumoto.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
