Product Details

• Actors: Glenn Close, James Woods, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kevin Dillon, Linda Darlow
• Directors: Jonathan Kaplan
• Writers: Barbara Benedek
• Producers: John H. Starke, Lawrence Kasdan, Midge Sanford, Sarah Pillsbury
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: June 24, 1994
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301658159
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #299,972 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Few subjects for film are as fat with moral and emotional complexity as human infertility, and the 1989 Immediate Family is an interesting, serio-comic example. Glenn Close and James Woods star as the Spectors, an aging, professional couple who can't conceive on their own. After meeting an unmarried and pregnant 17-year-old girl named Lucy (Mary Stuart Masterson), the Spectors decide to care for her until she hands over her baby to them for adoption. Everything goes according to plan until Lucy and her boyfriend (Kevin Dillon) make the bold decision that they don't want to part with their child, leaving the Spectors twisting in the wind until collective love and wisdom find a way out of this predicament. Directed by Jonathan Kaplan (The Accused), Immediate Family has an honest appeal and attractive performances, but is also noteworthy for its counterintuitive casting of a fiery Woods as a bland, conventional lead. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it from beginning to end, July 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Immediate Family [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I really enjoyed this movie. Being a parent I can understand the longing to have a child and not being able to. Up until the time that I saw Immediate Family I had never seen Woods and Close in this type of role. They were great. I also loved the music. If you're sentimental like myself, pull out the hankie.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A poignant family drama, June 23, 2008

By 

Z Hayes (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Immediate Family (DVD)

I watched this touching movie today and was absolutely riveted from start to finish. Glenn Close and James Woods play a successful couple who after 11 years of marriage still find themselves unable to have a child. They tire of medical attempts and finally decide to adopt a child. Mary Stuart Masterson and Kevin Dillon play teen parents-to-be who realise they can't raise a kid and decide to give their soon to be born baby up for adoption.

This is an emotionally heart-wrenching movie about the joys and pitfalls of adopting, on both the biological and adoptive parents. All the lead actors have done an amazing job in portraying the emotional fragility that each character goes through in the process. Glenn Close is so subtle yet riveting in her performance as a woman desperately yearning to have a baby and experience motherhood. It is a performance I shall not forget anytime soon. Her husband as played by James Woods is tender and credible in his role. Mary Stuart Masterson conveys all the fears and hopes of an unwed teen mother with a high degree of realism.

All in all, this is a wonderfully poignant family drama that will touch your heart.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful movie, May 16, 2010

By 

G. Torres "Book_worm" (New York, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Immediate Family (DVD)

This is one of the sweetest films I've ever seen. I absolutely love Glen Close as Lynda Spector in this movie and the ending could not be more heartfelt and touching.