Guiding Emily

I read two books recently that were decent but a bit of a slog. They were the sort of books that feel like school in a fashion, like you are learning something but it isn't really enjoyable enough as pleasure reading.

Let's skip to the Hallmark Channel (the mysteries one, which I now have access to, though it isn't quite a fair trade for HBO) film Guiding Emily.  After a recent film involving the break-up of a marriage (the football-related one on Saturday night has a divorced woman; films these days are not just filled with widowed parents), Hallmark had another film with a twist.  The reviews as a whole look good and rightly so.  

The film is adapted from a series of books about a woman who loses her sight and the guide dog who is destined to help her. We get parallel storylines, including hearing the voice (a bit cutesy but the trainer's experience is handled nicely)  of the dog.  The lead actress is a familiar one to fans of a top medical drama; I know her as Stacey from Daria!  

(The books and the film have some different details, going by the summaries on the Amazon page.  One interesting plot point is the usual plot complication that takes place sometime in the latter part of these films. It often comes off as a bit forced. The complication, which we don't worry about since we know what will happen, takes place in the dog's plotline.)

The woman is a positive thinker and passionate sort living a charmed life, including a handsome fiancé.  And, then she has a freak accident (it is noted she had a defect that was a sort of ticking time bomb) and she loses her sight.  The boyfriend turns out to not handle the situation very well and her mother is of limited help (the boyfriend drops out of the picture; the mother largely does as a friend/love interest enters stage right).  

The actress was quite good and the story as a whole was well done.  I did a quick look to see if I could find what the real-life blind community felt about it, but did not see anything.  From what I can tell, the author has down her homework, and she blessed the effort.  I would ask that a blind person do the role but the beginning has her sighted.  OTOH, there are those who have serious sight issues but see enough that they can fake it.  

A nice bit for a co-worker who is the stereotypical socially inept sort who plays a big role in getting her to snap out of her depression.  The film has a man in a wheelchair as part of her team but he's just window dressing. He has nothing to do; we just see him in the background a few times.  A bit of empty diversity.  

I think people with some disability would be a good potential for supporting or main cast in these films.  There was a somewhat based on true life drama involving a deaf woman who helped the FBI.  I saw a reference to an interesting sounding classic film about a blind detective.  They are somewhat running out of scenarios in their cozy mysteries, right?

Anyway, the film might have been a bit rough around the edges, but it was a notably well-done film that respected the sensitive subject matter.