Fantastic!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I saw this movie in 1976 while I was pregnant with my son. I thought I would never stop crying....(actually I haven't) but I remember if I had a girl I was going to name her Miranda...his name is Matthew so that never happened but it made an impact on me. I am going to get if for my 21 year old daughter to watch since she has a one year old now. My daughter was on her way to have an abortion, but did not do it. She decided to keep her child even though there would be a lot of difficulty since her father and I are divorced and I live in another state now. She has not been diagnosed with a terminal illness however leaving a recorded message to our daughters is not a bad idea. As we grow and age and times change basically we all have the same human behaviors and feelings of those who have gone before us, the fears and rejection. There is no greater rejection than abortion even though it is a woman's right to choose.

The first time I saw this movie I was 9 or 10. The movie is much more about the mother whose recounting events on a audio tapes for her daughter. Her daughter listens to the tapes when she is about 17 or 18. I don't want to give too much away, but by the end of the movie you are totally experiencing the multiplicity of emotions that her daughter experiences. I loved every single person in this movie - all of them. If you need a super deep cry, grab this one and a large box of Kleenex. It is moving, touching, and as the other reviewer said, way ahead of its time.PS - This is not sappy, unrealistic or predictable, either. It's not a "Terms of Endearment" or anything like that, either.

I saw this movie years ago before i had my first daughter, i have two now that are almost thirty.It touch me so deeply that i swore if i ever had a daughter and knew my time to die was near that this was the most clever way to bond with her. It made me cry a lot. Well the daughters name was Maranda and that's my second daughters name.Over the years i've never heard a name even close other than the miranda rights. My daughter hated the name because no one else had it. But now through the 90's its appearing even in movie stars. So to the writer thank you for writing a movie that i will never forget and I'm 50yrs. young and for helping me name my daughter.I'm searching for a copy so she can see it too. The message was very clear and the movie well written. Its sad that movies these days aren't as powerful in showing true love and this one.

I'm watching it as I type.Bonnie Bedelia. I am always reminded of how beautiful she is and that she looks like Molly Shannon, formerly of Saturday Night Live, I think, anyway.I had heard of her Oscar nominated performance in "Heart Like A Wheel" a movie about race car driver Shirley Muldowney, and I knew Bedelia was in the Die-hard movies, two of them anyway.I looked her name up to see what else she might have done that I had seen.Message to My Daughter, a 1973 telemovie.About the right time. A quick read of the plot confirmed it. This is what I saw way back then.I didn't watch all of it, but it seemed incredibly intriguing, and I do remember the abortion attempt, but she changed her mind.It was the year of Roe v. Wade.So was this movie pro abortion or anti abortion? 1973 wasn't a tame year for subject matter, but it is astonishing that more isn't heard about this film.