I was eager to see this film since I had enjoyed "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" so much. This film just wasn't in the same ballpark--pardon the allusion to baseball since the main character's overwhelming need to re-live his brief baseball glory days is a major plot point.Don't get me wrong: Imperioli and Burstyn give the kind of fine, heartfelt, and nuanced performances that audiences know they can count on them for.Imperioli has a way of making you feel for his character even when you want to slap some sense into him. Even though it's pretty obvious where the movie will go, there are a few surprises in the plot. So, if I was very moved by the lead performances and was already interested in the story, why didn't I like it more? Well, the framing device immediately distanced me from the movie and became an annoying intrusion as it went on. I felt the movie could have easily gone on for another half hour to flesh out key plot points. SPOILER: Also, even though I'm pretty sure the ending followed the book--I haven't read it, but the author wrote the script--, it added: A)more of the aforementioned annoying framing device of a third party narration and B)ended a film on an somewhat downbeat note that cancelled out the hopeful feelings the film had just engendered. Since I found the ending so hurried, I couldn't fully process and therefore fully feel all the emotions I feel the film wanted to elicit.I appreciated the excellent acting and fine attention to period detail. I just wish I'd liked it more.

Depressing and utterly revolting film about an alcoholic former baseball player who is allowed to spend one more day with his mother. She has been dead for 9 years and he has put a gun to his head to end it all. The problem is the writing is very bad and someone should have put an end to that quickly.Ellen Burstyn is great particularly when she has a nasty, meaty role. Unfortunately, in this film, she is too matter by the fact, going by the book mom. It just doesn't work for her. Imperioli delivers a suitable performance and his appearance as an alcoholic best describes the mess in the film.People come and go in this film like water. One black woman appears as a ghost. Another will die that evening. To add insult to injury, Imperioli's father was thrown out years before by Burstyn when she discovered that he had committed bigamy! That's all that's missing in this clinker.This is a story of missed opportunities and incredibly bad luck. Oprah Winfrey should have her head examined for producing such a depressing, uneven story. Even the flashback techniques in film making doesn't work here. It's too much and even confusing at times.A major disappointment. I anticipated so much better.

A richly-detailed screenplay and superb performances by the stars are the main selling points of FOR ONE MORE DAY, an exquisite and deeply moving TV fantasy about a desperate and lonely drunk named Chick Benetto,who, at the moment he is about to commit suicide, encounters the ghost of his mother, who has been dead for nine years. Still racked with guilt about not being there when his mother died, this man is given the opportunity to spend one final day with his loving mother. The intricate screenplay effectively shows the specific events in Chick's life that have led him to his suicide attempt and then flashes back and forth through various parts of his life from early childhood to his blossoming career as a professional baseball player to illustrate the downward spiral his life took, apparently affected by the separation of his parents. His mother is portrayed as a luminous free spirit whose exuberance for life was constantly being crushed by her chauvinistic Neanderthal husband who felt she was making Chick soft. The screenplay allows us to see Chick at various highs and lows during his life and allows Chick the opportunity to ask his mother all those things about his parents'separation that he never got the opportunity to ask. Emmy winner Michael Imperioli (THE SOPRANOS)delivers a powerful and delicately layered performance as the tortured Chick and Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn is luminous, as always, as the ghostly mom who materializes when her son needs her the most. OK, there were little problems I had with logic and continuity such as Mom's abilities to tend to Chick's wounds even though she is a ghost and that Imperioli is a little too young to appear to have done all the things Chick is supposed to have done, but I allowed this lovely story to envelop me in the emotions it evoked and forgive the inconsistencies. This movie should be shown annually on Mother's Day to remind us all how special our mothers are. But above all it is the sublime performances of Burstyn and Imperioli that make this such a rewarding film experience and I hope they are both remembered at Emmy time.

Not the best movie, but I don't think it pretends to be.Michael Imperioli showed range as the lead character. It was good to see him as something other than a criminal/cop.Ellen Burstyn was graceful and elegant in her "effortless" portrayal of Michael's mother (I say effortless because she makes if look so easy, not that it is).My biggest problem with the movie came from what seemed to be gratuitous cuts to different time lines. To me it made the movie painfully choppy. The story/plot is not a complicated one, but the editing became increasingly irritating as the movie went on. For One More Day loosely reminds me of another movie that doesn't apologize for its sentimentality and uses of flashbacks to reveal its story, The Notebook. However, The Notebook makes effective use of flashbacks and knew where to draw the line.I lost my father recently, and speak to my mother regularly. This is the kind of movie that reminds us how precious the little time we all have is, and how more valuable time with our family is. Cherish the moments before they're gone.