On S List of Movie Reviews
(For optimum viewing, adjust the zoom level of your browser to 125%.)
Shattered Dreams (1990)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
5/24
5/24:
Shattered Dreams is an okay telefilm that aired on CBS about battered woman syndrome, but
The Burning Bed was more compelling.
The trouble is I didn't care about Charlotte Fedders. She had plenty of signals that something wasn't right with her husband,
even before they were set to be married. Her parents, friends, and neighbors told her so, too, but she ignored them all,
preferring to believe what she wanted to believe. Eventually, she woke up and decided to leave him.
The thing is Charlotte Fedders was intelligent and came from medium-high income class while Francine Hughes of
The Burning Bed was neither and didn't know any better. Why Shattered Dreams
failed to draw sympathy from me is that it left out many people including both spouses' parents, friends, and
associates. By doing so, it wants me to think their world is small and they live in a vacuum when in fact John Fedders was a
major player in Washington, D.C.
Anyway, the acting is fine with Michael Nouri stealing most of the attention only because he looks so normal and determined.
The real guy himself was taller, measuring at 6'10". There's a pattern he has honed to perfection: every time he beats up
his wife, he says the right words to coax her back into the marriage and she falls for it every single time. The only thing I
can say is "good grief."
All in all, no disrespect to Charlotte Fedders is intended as I recommend The Burning Bed
over Shattered Dreams.