Lange has real authority here, and the performance holds you emotionally. This is one of the few times I’ve seen people cry at a movie that wasn't sentimental -- it’s an honest tearjerker. People can cry without feeling they’ve been had.

But the resulting film is scattershot, always skirting the surface, never digging deep enough, runnning through events as if it was a TV movie racing ahead to the next commercial break.

"Sweet Dreams" doesn't draw you in the way, say, "Coal Miner's Daughter" (the story of Loretta Lynn) did, but it does entertain.

Director Karel Reisz and screenwriter Robert Getchell create a tightly woven drama with two strong main characters and a number of fine supporting roles, and the love story at the film's center is convincing.