It is possible that "Nicholas' Gift" will be received by Americans as just another made-for-TV film. But don't bet on it.
Other than its truncated commercial television format, this CBS Movie of the Week (Sunday, 8 p.m., Ch. 2) has a ton going for it:Superb performances by Jamie Lee Curtis and Alan Bates; tight steering by an award-winning director; an Italian crew schooled in feature film making; an intelligent script based on a riveting real-life story, and an almost religious commitment from everyone involved in the project to make a film worthy of its subjects.
Those subjects are Reg and Maggie Green, who transformed the death of their 7-year-old son, Nicholas, into a worldwide campaign to save lives.
Probably mistaken for gem dealers, the vacationing Greens and their sleeping children were attacked in the autumn of 1994 by highway bandits as they drove along a dark stretch of autostrada in Calabria, Italy. Reg, Maggie and 4-year-old daughter, Eleanor, escaped injury, but Nicholas was shot in the head.
When doctors explained the irreversible extent of Nicholas' brain injury, his parents made the wrenching decision to remove him from life support. They also made what they thought was a private, finite decision - to donate Nicholas' organs. Instead, that act stunned much of the Western world and has prompted thousands of people in the United States and Europe to turn their loved ones' deaths into life for someone else.
"The attitude of these people!" said Lorenzo Minoli, the Italian born co-executive producer of "Nicholas' Gift." "They come to a foreign country, their son is killed in the worst, shaming manner, and they not only give the organs of the kid, they don't look for vengeance. You couldn't find a more compelling story."
Introduced to the Greens by the American documentary filmmaker Marc Bruno, Minoli convinced them that he and his colleagues could make the kind of movie they have long envisioned: a film that might help the world understand how special their son was and also could inspire millions of people to consider organ donation.
"There are people who've said this script seems wasted on TV, that it should be a big theatrical release," said Minoli. "But I think that, because of television's much broader audience, we will have a chance to make our message much broader."
Obviously, the Greens concur. The movie's potential audience is at least 30 million "ordinary" Americans - the very segment of society the Greens want to reach with their message about organ donation.
In a kind of transmutative gesture, the Greens also provided the filmmakers with a number of Nicholas' personal effects for use as props by Curtis, Bates and the two child actors who portray Nicholas and Eleanor: Gene Wexler and Hallie Kate Eisenberg.
Among the items were some of Nicholas' toys and his security "blanket" - a piece of sheepskin that his parents tucked next to him in the ambulance so he would not be afraid if he woke up alone.
Although the Greens signed away all legal control over the movie, Minoli and his American co-producer, Judd Parkin, have allowed them great input. On the set in Rome and Anzio last December with Eleanor and their toddler twins, Martin and Laura, the Greens spoke at length about their experience to Bates and Curtis and submitted suggested revisions to producers.
As for the story itself: "We cut whole sections out of the first draft to incorporate Reg and Maggie's notes," said the scriptwriter, Christine Berardo.
"I had been really drawn to this story since I read about it in the newspaper," Berado said. "I saw it as a humbling, once in a lifetime opportunity."