TV REVIEWS : An Uninspired ‘Spoils of War’

A 15-year-old boy’s dogged attempts to reunite his mother and the father he never knew is at the crux of ABC’s “Spoils of War.” But mother Elise (Kate Nelligan) and father Andrew (John Heard) turn out to be such unappealing characters that slogging through this uninspired TV movie proves to be a major undertaking.

Raised solely by his vagabond mother, Martin (Tobey Maguire) has spent most of his young life moving from town to town. So it’s understandable why this sensitive lad yearns so deeply for the type of stable family life he believes will develop if he can bring his parents back together.

Certainly, such a reconciliation couldn’t hurt Elise’s quality of life too much. A heavy drinker with a string of failed relationships and jobs behind her, she seems to be going nowhere fast.

Andrew is even less likable than his ex-wife. Played with a distasteful smugness by Heard, this successful commercial photographer seems to have a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas. Andrew tends to treat his long-lost son with such arrogant detachment that you wonder why Martin finds his company so worthwhile.

As “Spoils of War” develops, it’s revealed that Elise and Andrew were both ‘60s radicals. Their relationship fractured in part when Andrew renounced the anti-war movement and decided to pursue his own mainstream career goals. The film sets the table for a debate concerning the merits of ‘60s liberalism that unfortunately never develops. The characters here merely end up spouting platitudes.

What’s particularly sad is how Elise is sometimes referred to in the past tense. To hear some of the characters reminisce about her once-effortless ability to turn heads, and to see her in the present struggling to stay young and fresh-faced, is to be reminded how much more women are judged on appearance than men.

* “Spoils of War” airs at 8 tonight on ABC (Channels 7, 3, 10, 42).