Alley’s return to the profound

Kirstie Alley’s recent efforts -- think “Veronica’s Closet” and those wince-making Pier 1 commercials -- tend to obscure the fact that she once earned critical acclaim for her acting chops in a finely tuned portrayal of Maggie the Cat in director Jose Quintero’s 1983 production of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” at the Mark Taper Forum.

It’s that Kirstie Alley whose honest portrayal of a mentally disabled woman brings moving resonance to CBS’ sentiment-glazed, fact-based movie, “Profoundly Normal” (9 p.m. Sunday).

Alley, who is also one of the film’s executive producers, plays Donna Shelby, whose low-60s IQ led her to be institutionalized from childhood through her 20s, until the substandard home was closed by court order. While there, Shelby fell in love with another long-term patient, future Special Olympics athlete Ricardo Thornton. He is played by Delroy Lindo, in a sympathetic performance that is a far cry from his powerful, angry roles in “Cider House Rules” and “Romeo Must Die.”

Defying the “normal” world’s expectations and authorities’ disapproval, the couple not only learned to live independently but also married, had a healthy child and became international advocates for people with mental disabilities. “60 Minutes” profiles in 1986 and 1990 gave the Thorntons a certain celebrity status; the reports also brought an outpouring of public response, some of it negative, sparked by the couple’s interracial marriage.

The narrow-focused pseudo-documentary, written by Paris Qualles and directed with restraint by Graeme Clifford, dramatizes on-camera interviews and flashbacks of the Thorntons’ lives. Secondary characters -- fellow patients, doctors, social workers -- have little dimension, although Rosemary Dunsmore’s supportive social worker, Catherine Fitch as Donna’s troubled roommate and Danielle Bouffard as a young Donna are effective.

Despite its limited dramatic layers, the film is warmed by what is revealed of the Thorntons as individuals, not cookie-cutter, inspirational icons, thanks to the appealing chemistry between Lindo and Alley, and by Alley’s flawless performance as the indomitable, feisty, big-hearted Donna.