Tuesdays with Morrie (film)

In 1995 Detroit, Mitch Albom has become caught up in his career as a sports commentator and journalist. His girlfriend Janine, a backup singer, feels that he never places her as a priority. Mitch is consistently doing six things at once. One evening, while on the phone with Janine, Mitch flips through TV channels and lands on an edition of Nightline where he sees his former professor Morrie Schwartz being interviewed by Ted Koppel. Morrie discusses his current health and lets everyone know he is dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's disease" or ALS. Morrie, a retired sociology professor from Brandeis University living in Boston, comes on the show to describe his final journey.

As life goes on with work and balancing his relationship with Janine, Mitch feels bothered he never got a chance to visit his old professor. Feeling so moved by the interview, Mitch reaches out for a visit with Morrie after sixteen years of no contact. Morrie has an affinity with food and it becomes a regular endeavor with his visits with Mitch. Office hours during university were on Tuesdays, where Morrie would grade papers and critique students' assignments, and Mitch now makes it a habit to visit him every Tuesday. Connie, Morrie's home nurse, is his primary caretaker. After leaving Morrie, Mitch continues working and can't find a groove with Janine.

Mitch returns and witnesses a living funeral where friends and family come to honor Morrie while he is still alive, per Morrie's request. As the two get reacquainted, they participate in several thoughtful and reflective conversations about various substantial topics. Morrie divulges in many stories on his time as a young boy and how his relationships unfolded between his mother, stepmother, and father. Back home Mitch continues with his impressive and busy journalism career, and while out on a story he receives a call from Janine breaking up with him.

Another visit prompts Mitch to officially bring a recording device to capture all of Morrie's powerful pieces of advice and all his anecdotes. Morrie and Mitch grow closer and closer with each visit, some significant topics that were explored were death, love, marriage, family, and relationships. The time spent with Morrie starts to affect Mitch's position at work, he argues with his boss and decides to prioritize his visits with Morrie. Mitch, being so immersed in this new world asks Connie to teach him a few skills to aid Morrie when no one else is around. New tasks Mitch learns include: helping Morrie in and out of his wheelchair, using his oxygen tank, feeding Morrie, and even special massages.

Finding value and meaning in Morrie's advice, Mitch proposes to Janine via letter. She rejects him and comes along on one of his visits to Morrie's home. Janine notices a change in Mitch's personality in the way he knows what to do around Morrie from the oxygen tank assistance to cleaning Morrie's crying eyes. Janine and Morrie speak without Mitch in the room. Later, on an airplane on their way home Mitch and Janine make up and decide a proper proposal should take place.

On a rainy visit, Mitch brings Morrie food, but learns he has not been able to eat solid foods for some time. Charlotte, Morrie's wife advises Mitch that his visits have a great impact on Morrie. Mitch notices how the illness is progressing in a devastating way. They continue to go back and forth on difficult topics, regret, spiritual life, forgiveness, and love. Morrie reiterates that we all, as humans, must love one another or die. He recounts the story of his father's death. Mitch receives a call from Walter, his boss, and they find middle ground to allow Mitch to write again. Mitch takes Janine to the islands and proposes to her there. Once back home, Mitch requests to have all of his Tuesdays off to continue his visits with Morrie.

On a snowy visit, Mitch asks Morrie what a perfect day would be like. Morrie gives a simple answer – one spent with friends, family, food, dancing, and choosing his burial site. Morrie asks Mitch to visit once he has passed, breaking his heart. Mitch cries and hugs his old friend. Mitch promises to come back next Tuesday. Morrie dies Saturday morning. Charlotte keeps his funeral small, and all the people in his perfect day are included. The funeral is held on a Tuesday.

• Jack Lemmon as Morrie Schwartz
• Hank Azaria as Mitch Albom
• Wendy Moniz as Janine, Mitch's girlfriend
• Caroline Aaron as Connie, Morrie's home nurse
• Bonnie Bartlett as Charlotte Schwartz, Morrie's wife
• Aaron Lustig as Rabbi Al Axelrod
• Bruce Nozick as Mr. Schwartz
• Ivo Cutzarida as Armand
• John Carroll Lynch as Walter Moran, Mitch's boss
• Kyle Sullivan as Young Morrie
• Dan Thiel as Shawn Daley
• Christian Meoli as Aldo
• John Billingsley as Sports Fan #1

The film was produced by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films. After reading the memoir, Winfrey promoted it on her television show and lobbied for the film rights. Albom doubted the film would be made: "There are no car crashes, no explosions, no intricate terrorist plots. It's just two people talking. What producer in their right mind would want to take that on?"[1]

The producers did believe that a straight adaptation of the memoir would be "limp and static", so the story was changed to place more emphasis on Albom, including scenes with his girlfriend and at his workplace. According to executive producer Kate Forte, director Mick Jackson was inspired by the German action film Run Lola Run to quicken the film's pace.[1] Filming took place in Los Angeles and Santa Clarita, California.[2]

Tuesdays with Morrie aired on ABC on December 5, 1999, as part of the "Oprah Winfrey Presents" series.[2]

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes give it a 71% rating based on 7 reviews.[3] Fred Topel from About.com says, "Movie of the week with film caliber performances".[4] Common Sense Media Editors states, "Oprah Winfrey presents a three-hanky weepfest".[5]

• Tuesdays with Morrie at AllMovie
• Tuesdays with Morrie at IMDb
• Tuesdays with Morrie Archived 2018-05-18 at the Wayback Machine on slanting-n