Helen Keller's life was not a Lifetime: Made for Television film. It was better than this and deserved better than this. I love Mare Winningham and I love Blythe Danner, but I did not love either in this horrid film. Winningham treated Keller as if she were a trained puppy and Danner treated Sullivan as if she were the puppet-master, all controlling, all demanding. Their relationship was deep, complicated, intricate and close. Too bad it was never portrayed as anything else but simplistic and one dimensional. Want to learn about Helen Keller? Read her autobiography (The Story of My Life). Want to know about the relationship between Helen and Anne? Read "Helen and Teacher: The Story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy" by Joseph Lash. Skip this film whatever you do.
