TV Review : A Flawless Performance in Medical Saga

No misery is dire enough that it cannot be mined for a “fact-based” TV movie, but once in a while a true-life experience makes it to the small screen compellingly rendered and untarnished by the stain of exploitation. If you miss “My Breast,” starring Meredith Baxter in a flawless performance, you miss one of TV’s rare triumphs.

Based on writer-reporter Joyce Wadler’s book, a forthright chronicle of her own experience with breast cancer, the well-made film, written by Wadler and directed by Betty Thomas, draws viewers into a life changed but not defeated by illness--without saintly heroics or funereal hush.

As Wadler, whose roller-coaster ride through diagnosis of a malignant breast tumor, surgery and recovery led to a fortunately happy resolution, Baxter gives a transcendent performance.

By turns vulnerable, sensual, humorous, angry and frightened, Baxter submerges one of TV’s most recognizable celebrities in a visceral, intimate complexity of genuine emotion. Her ache-in-the-throat restraint, the stillness of fear and tension-breaking wisecracks--this could be you, your sister or your best friend.

Baxter even comes close to making Wadler’s frustrating fragile neediness for a philandering boyfriend understandable. Jamey Sheridan does a good job with the thankless role. Others in the fine supporting cast are Barbara Barrie as Wadler’s feisty mom, and Sara Botsford and James Sutorius as Wadler’s close friends.

After watching this frank two hours, women may find themselves pondering their own priorities. It’s a certainty that many not only will be spurred to begin regular breast exams but also will find themselves giving uneasy thought to health-care options. Wadler had security that most women do not: A writer for People magazine when her cancer was diagnosed, she was given sick leave with full pay and full insurance coverage.

--LYNNE HEFFLEY

* “My Breast” airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on CBS (Channels 2 and 8).