This film is based on the breathtaking little novel "Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail" by Louise Shivers. While the film has none of the brilliance of the book, the beauty of Ms. Shiver's prose does creep into the script every now and then. The farm scenes with the old house, barns and animals are so real you can practically smell the place, and the mysterious qualities of Roxie's upbringing add a surrealness. Singer, appropriately stiff in her roll, is complimented well by the perfection of the wonderful Clu Gulager, who plays her father and the equally wonderful, and rather slim, Kathy Bates as her stepmother. Anthony Edwards seems plucked right out of the novel's pages.

One of the best touches in the film is the narrator, done by the beautiful Dorothy McGuire. Her rich comforting voice, which quotes directly from the novel, draws you instantly into Roxie's world and will make you want to run out and buy the book, now in its third printing.

Make sure you listen to the last song that plays during the credits. No one but Kim Carnes could do justice to the song "The Heart Must Have a Home." The raspiness of her voice successfully marries the two clear themes of this story, adultery and devastation.