‘Three Wishes’

Directed by Martha Coolidge, this 1995 release is an uncommonly accurate period piece, the kind that goes beneath the surface, and its stars, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Patrick Swayze (pictured), are in peak form. It’s the summer of 1955, and Mastrantonio, a young Korean War widow with two sons (Joseph Mazzello, Seth Mumy), are in their car when she swerves to avoid hitting a dog only to strike its owner, (Swayze), breaking his leg. Mastrantonio insists that Swayze, a drifter, recover with her family. What Swayze radiates is a calm strength that awakens people to the potential within themselves (Cinemax Monday at 6 p.m.).