In a dramatization of her life, Linda Eastman, takes a job snapping pictures for Rolling Stone Magazine, despite the objections of her straight-laced father, Lee Eastman. As Linda rubs elbows with music royalty, she bumps into rock star Paul McCartney, and they soon fall in love. Although not only her father but also Paul's band mates disapprove of the romance, Linda and Paul wed while relations between the Beatles begin to disintegrate.
Reviews
Perhaps a better title would have been Paul and Linda McCartney - A True Love Story, as I feel this TV movie set out to show the deep love Paul and Linda felt for each other and really not much else, they would have understandably needed a mini series to cover more about her and the busy life they both lived with his career re both The Beatles and Wings and her photographic career, alternative interests and what being the parents of 4 children, whom they seemed to put a lot of their efforts into, entails. Paul said that Linda was the kindest person he had ever met and I think the script got that right. Their love story moved me and on that basis I thought the TV movie was well done.
When this movie was first broadcast, I refused to watch it. I assumed it would be insulting to the memory of Linda. I assumed they would have a lot of long, personal conversations between the two leads, that no one could really know about, except the two of them, themselves. If it were written by Paul, then I could believe it, but as it was not, I did not want to get upset by a lot of baseless fabrications.So, four years later, (last night), it appeared on the Lifetime channel, and as I was unable to sleep, I decided to watch it.It was not as bad as I thought, but I was disappointed that it told nothing of all of Linda's accomplishments, on her own. I thought the lead actors did a good enough job, weighted down as they were, by the material.The obligatory scene where Linda gets upset by the bad press after she appears with Wings seemed included just to prove that it was not HER idea to force herself on stage. I was at their first concert at the Cow Palace, in 1976, and even though I was one of those girls who mourned his marriage, I couldn't help being caught up by their obvious love for each other. The local press was merciless, and I began to really feel for her, then.She was a great mother but they barely touched on that. Her photography was excellent, but again, it was not given much more attention than as a way to accomplish her apparent goal of sleeping with rock stars. So what if she was a groupie? It was a short period in her life, and certainly not the most interesting part of her life story. Her photo of Paul in "Rock and Other Four Letter Words", is one of a kind. I believe she said she took it as she told him she was pregnant. Hilarious! That would have been a good scene in the movie.They should have shown how they raised their kids to be good, decent people.There is a momentary look at a car taking them to school, but that scene is actually focused on John's death, and the McCartney kids are just decoration.What happened to their quote, "We don't eat anything that has a face"?When the movie ended, I was sad for her, because of what I already know about her, not because of anything in the movie.
I know this is a tv movie but this seemed to cover so little ground in Lynda McCartney's life. The movie is split into 2 halves, early life and meeting/marrying Paul and the last few years and the fight against cancer. The movie switched between the two periods intermittently, I believe the only reason this was done was to avoid having to document the middle 20 years (post marriage - pre cancer). The portrayal of McCartney in his early time with Lynda (i.e. during the last years of the Beatles) grated on me a bit as the portrayal of John Lennon (although he is no saint) was universally negative and I don't think this was the case (and was not necessary for the telling of the Lynda McCartney story. The latter half, portraying the cancer battle was reasonably done adding a little depth to a fairly light weight movie. Hardly any mention was made of the Wings years or Lynda's battles for Animal Rights and Vegetarianism - surely a large part of her life (covered in about 5 mins total in the film) - more time talking about vegitarianism and animal rights was covered in the Simpsons episode they both guest voiced in.The acting was ok from the 2 leads, especially the Lynda McCartney character herself. The other actors did their job and nothing more.An opportunity wasted I feel.5 / 10
Excellent. Better than I expected. Both a heart-warming and heart-wrenching look into Paul and Linda's lives together. Performances by both principals were nothing less than superb. See it soon and often, certainly in conjunction with The Birth of the Beatles, Backbeat, John and Yoko-A Love Story, and Two of Us.
