Children of Divorce (1980) starring Barbara Feldon, Lance Kerwin, Stacey Nelkin, Carmine Caridi directed by Joanna Lee Movie Review

Children of Divorce (1980)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Stacey Nelkin and Lance Kerwin in Children of Divorce (1980)

Dealing with Divorce

The Hoffman, Malik and Williams family have all run in to trouble with the parents getting divorced. For Andrea Hoffman (Stacey Nelkin) that is coming to terms with the life of luxury gone and a change of school whilst for Tony Malik (Lance Kerwin) that is being used as a go between and then there is Denise Williams (Kim Fields) who fears not seeing her father again. The divorce takes its toll on everyone especially the children as they find lives tough from one child resorting to eating, another reaches for the bottle whilst another experiments with sex and another who was an A grade student rebelling in class.

Watching "Children of Divorce" reminded me of school assemblies when a drama group would come in to act out an important message such as being aware of strange men in cars offering you sweets. As such it is hard to be over critical about "Children of Divorce" as it was made in 1980 and was aimed at not only making people aware of the difficulties children face when their parents get divorced but also making children going through it know they are not alone.

But as a reviewer I have to be honest and say that "Children of Divorce" is incredibly unsubtle from the way children act to the forced stereotypes right through to the dialogue which is not on the least bit convincing would come from a teenager's mouth. In the harsh reality of things "Children of Divorce" in 30 years time will be mentioned in the same breath as "Reefer Madness" and "Sex Madness" due to its complete lack of subtlety.

What this all boils down to is that even when you take in to account its age "Children of Divorce" is hard work because it is as subtle as a brick. But it does have some good moments and even though it lacks subtlety it still opens your eyes when it comes to the children who are dealing with parents getting divorced.


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