choices

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Choices Of The Heart:
The Margaret Sanger Story (1995)

Director: Paul Shapiro

Writer: Matt Dorff

Cast: Dana Delany, Rod Steiger, Henry Czerny

Character: Schlesinger

Billing: 4th

Plot: In 1914, speaking or writing about sex is outlawed, but thousands of women are dying as a result of self-induced abortions and similar problems. Nurse Margaret Sanger tries to take on the establishment, even if it means losing her family.

Review: Real life stories tend to fall into two distinct categories. There are films which opt for sensationalism, soaring film scores, over-emoting actors and bear little relation to any facts there might have been in the first place, but are generally quite entertaining in one way or another. And then you have the "history class" types, which get every fact properly documented and in its place, but seem to have been acted out in a cupboard by some wooden puppets. Choices Of The Heart is, fortunately, aiming to be a bit more concrete than either of these examples, with decent period sets and a lot of talent in the acting department.

Sanger's story also benefits the film in that it is actually quite interesting. However no one's life is structured like a film, and so for most of the ninety minutes we get Delany looking worried about her family, and Steiger ranting at whoever walks into his office. People keep dying at inopportune moments, and nothing much ever actually happens, which is odd, because there's certainly enough people ranting and looking worried in this film. Sanger's central moral dilemma is, yes, difficult, but the context of the film puts the audience in no doubt as to what decision she is going to make, so spending ages agonising over it just gets boring. Delany is faced with a difficult script, and gets around it well, unlike Steiger whose character is demonised from the very start and just sets to chewing scenery - but with commendable enthusiasm. Tom pops in occasionally as socialist heir-apparent Schlesinger, who gives the impression that there actually was something fascinating going on. Unfortunately the film doesn't bother showing us what it might be, and never goes to the lengths of actually being entertaining, but it is educational enough to have made me flip through a few biographies. A success, then? Perhaps, but I would have preferred a bit more over-emoting and sensationalism.

Trivia: Tom's character, Arthur Schlesinger, was a Harvard historian with radical views about the establishment's treatment of women. At one point, Sanger was forbidden to speak at a lecture, so Schlesinger read her speech, while she sat gagged onstage. Henry Czerny was also in I Love A Man In Uniform.