‘Grace & Glorie’ Has Difficulty Making Jump From Stage to TV

The opening, atmospheric scenes of Hallmark Hall of Fame’s “Grace & Glorie” leave little doubt about where the story is going. A feisty, independent elderly country woman with a terminal disease is paired with a younger hospice worker just arrived from the big city. And when Grace, the older woman (Gena Rowlands) insists upon going home to die, she and Glorie (Diane Lane) must deal with the fact that the family homestead has been sold to a real estate developer.

Somewhere in the midst of “Grace & Glorie” there is a story worth telling, about the survival of hope, the value of friendship and the satisfactions of a life well-lived.

Based upon a well-received off-Broadway play by Tom Ziegler, with a teleplay written by Grace McKeaney, the TV adaptation never quite makes the transition from stage to screen. Threads of continuity are too often diminished in favor of set piece scenes for the two principal actresses.

As a result, the focus rarely moves from the dramatic encounters between Rowlands and Lane--from their first wary meeting to the shared moments of similarly painful memories. Undoubtedly effective as stage pieces, they are strung together here in carefully positioned fashion, with the balance of the story simply serving as links.

Story arcs fade in and out: Grace’s grandson Roy (Chris Beetem) seems to change character almost from scene to scene; Glorie’s relationship with her husband David (Neal McDonough) is hinted at, then set aside, again in favor of the principals; and the connection between Grace and her grandniece Luanne (Emmy Rossum) is a kind of sidebar story that seems present only to provide material for a dramatic finale.

To the credit of Rowlands and Lane, they bring a sense of reality to characters who sometimes are asked to utter lines that sound more like parables than intimate conversation. But the undeniably moving passages, which do exist, are too few and too far between.

* “Grace & Glorie” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBS.