CBS Acting carries 'Night'

The movie stars Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden.
By HAL BOEDEKER
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
When her dazed nephew arrives on her doorstep, Vicki Miller (Marcia Gay Harden) opens her home and her heart. She acts kindly even though 16-year-old Bobby (Taylor Handley) behaves strangely. He flinches when anyone tries to touch him. He loses focus and drifts into trances. He gasps through uneasy sleep.
Vicki realizes he's "a very damaged boy." Her concern drives "In From the Night," a poignant and well-acted movie premiering tonight at 9 p.m. on CBS.
As a "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation, this film favors a don't-look-too-closely approach rather than a hard-hitting one. The movie unfolds over the mystery of Bobby. It hints at deep-rooted family problems and saves the most unsettling revelations for brief flashbacks.
If the storytelling lacks edge, the acting still enriches this family drama. Vicki doesn't turn away from Bobby, and the viewer can't either because Handley gives a mesmerizing performance.
"Your problem, Vicki, is you think I'm human, but I'm not human," Bobby says.
Handley delivers that line in such a chilling way that you want to figure out what stunted Bobby. Handley expertly plays a rude, remote and rudderless character.
Harden's performance
The movie works, however, because of Oscar-winner Harden. Vicki's taking in Bobby might seem foolhardy, yet Harden makes the situation credible with tender acting. Vicki can't be a star turn, and Harden comes through in generous, subtle style.
Vicki even sets aside her writing career to help her nephew. To underscore Vicki's big-heartedness, the movie brings in New York theater great Marian Seldes as an obnoxiously self-absorbed writer.
Harden also displays a winning way with a sarcastic line. When a nurse wonders who raised Bobby, Vicki shoots back, "Wolves."
"In From the Night" traces Bobby's problems to an earlier generation and Vicki's difficult parents. They didn't know how to help Bobby's unstable dad (Mackenzie Astin in wrenching form). Vicki regrets the past, and her prickly mother, Vera (Kate Nelligan), won't face problems squarely.
In some ways, "In From the Night" is a little too like Vera. Susanna Styron and Bridget Terry adapted the film's script from Marsha Recknagel's memoir "If Nights Could Talk." In TV-movie fashion, the plot can fit together in convenient, upbeat ways at odds with this dark story. It should be remembered that "Hallmark Hall of Fame" set the standard for such family dramas with "Promise," a penetrating 1986 drama starring James Garner and James Woods.