The Gathering (1977) On DVD

A fondly remembered holiday item from the latter phase of a great age of TV movies, The Gathering has an irresistible idea and a splendid central performance from Edward Asner, the actor for whom the term gruff but lovable was surely coined. We learn in the opening seconds of the film that Asner's character, a well-to-do businessman named Adam Thornton, has been diagnosed with a terminal illness; he's got three months left, at best. Time to make amends, and Adam reaches out to his ex-wife (Maureen Stapleton) and his mostly estranged kids for a final Christmas gathering. You won't find many surprises along the way, but the script by veteran screenwriter James Poe takes time for the small things, and gives Asner a believably conflicted character to play. It's directed by Randal Kleiser, who was just a year away from jumping to a big-screen career and scoring a smash with Grease. There's also some interest in watching a batch of young actors in the early stages of their careers: Bruce Davison, Gregory Harrison, Veronica Hamel, and Stephanie Zimbalist are in the Thornton extended family. If The Gathering has the basic look and feel of a TV movie (with wintry location work in Ohio), it nevertheless creates an honest, earned glow as it sorts through one man's final accounting of what has mattered in his life. --Robert Horton

Gathering, The (1976 TVM) (DVD)