‘Cate’s’ Solid Cast Trapped in a Slow-Going Family Drama

On television, as in life, few things get blood pumping and tears flowing like a family drama.

So it’s odd that “Cupid & Cate,” a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation airing Sunday on CBS, prompts so little of either. Even with such dependable talents as Mary-Louise Parker, Peter Gallagher, Philip Bosco and Bebe Neuwirth leading the cast, and even with a plot that touches on alcoholism, marital discord, childhood scars, parent-child clashes and serious illness, this movie unfolds with a glacial sameness that will leave many viewers reaching for the No Doz long before the Kleenex.

That it does, finally, generate tears is a credit to the performers, who deliver finely nuanced, emotionally committed portrayals even as Jennifer Miller and Ron Raley’s screenplay (based on the Christina Bartolomeo novel “Cupid and Diana”) and Brent Shields’ direction leave them in limbo.

Parker plays Cate De Angelo, the youngest of four sisters--Francesca (Neuwirth), Annette (Rebecca Luker) and Cynthia (Joanna Going)--who hang close to one another. One of the seemingly few things that they disagree about is which parent was more to blame for the shouting matches that rattled their young lives. For her part, Cate blames their now-widowed father (Bosco), an otherwise jovial sort who can’t seem to talk to Cate without making a cutting gibe.

Meanwhile, Cate, who owns a barely surviving vintage-clothing shop in Washington, D.C., is cruising along on autopilot in her relationship with dependable if dull Phillip (David Lansbury). Roaring back into town, irrepressible Cynthia, who is a fashion model, plays Cupid by arranging for Cate to meet the charming, quietly insistent Harry (Gallagher).

As the plot wanders back and forth between the father-daughter conflict and the tug-of-war for Cate’s heart, the action tends to amble along and then, suddenly, lurch forward with too little motivation. Then back to ambling.

It’s clear that everyone here is making an earnest attempt to convey a story about life’s misunderstandings and uncertainties, as well as its tender mercies, hoping that we’ll catch on to the lesson about simply being there for one another in bad times and good. But it’s difficult for us to fully lend our sympathies to this curiously somnambulant tale, and so, “Cupid’s” arrow falls short.

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* “Cupid & Cate” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBS. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).