When thirtyish, hard driving, and chain-smoking executive John Hurley (Kevin Dobson) suffers two major heart attacks, the only option given him is heart transplantation surgery. This TV film follows Hurley's journey through the medical system, and focuses on the effects on his family (including his wife, played by Melinda Dillon, and his daughter, played by Helen Hunt).
Dobson is way over the top as a New York executive who has a horrible smoking habit and a hair-trigger temper and who only shows a little self-control toward the end of the film when he's waiting for a donor heart. Melinda Dillon acquits herself nicely in the concerned wife role, but the real star of the movie is Granville Van Dusen, who understates the role of Hurley's cardiologist quite well.
Anyone who has had heart problems will likely find the film's 42-year-old technology interesting, and Hurley's story is told quite well, if a little blandly. Another benefit is the depiction of the awful control that cigarettes exercise over so many people, who will do anything for another jolt of nicotine. I found the film fairly good but was a little disappointed in the very subdued story resolution. Still, it's a pretty good depiction of a serious subject.
