Farrah Fawcett in Dalva. From a free-spirited 15-year-old to a world-weary woman in her 30s, Dalva Northridge travels a restless road of regret and loss until a second chance at love changes everything. Farrah Fawcett, Peter Coyote, Rod Steiger, and Powers Booth star.

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Review of Dalva:

`Dalva' An Actor's Movie, Maybe Not A Viewer's

March 2, 1996

By TOM JICHA TV/Radio Writer

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Dalva boasts Farrah Fawcett, still stunningly beautiful as she comes up on her 50th birthday. Equally important, she has earned as much respect for her acting as she has admiration for her looks.

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Her leading men are Emmy winner Powers Boothe (The Guyana Tragedy) and rock-solid Peter Coyote. Oscar winner Rod Steiger (In the Heat of the Night) has an important supporting role, as does dependable veteran Carroll Baker. The source work is a novel by Jim Harrison, who also wrote Legends of the Fall.

In spite of all this star power, Dalva was withheld from the February sweeps by ABC. The problem is a story that is a dramatic cul-de-sac - it twists and turns but goes nowhere. Fawcett and company make it an elegant ride but one that is ultimately unfulfilling. (If you think about it, Legends of the Fall was kind of tedious, too.)

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Dalva Northridge's life is a series of destructive relationships. At sweet 16, she takes her first lover, an Indian youth named Duane. It isn't until it is too late that she comes to know why her usually tolerant family is so uncharacteristically opposed to the mixed-race relationship.

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The youthful recklessness produces a son, who is snatched from Dalva at birth and put up for adoption, an act that has lifelong ramifications for both parents.

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The story flashes ahead 20 years. Dalva has left her family's Iowa farm and is living in San Francisco, immersed in a relationship with a college professor and historian. Michael (Coyote) loves Dalva and proposes, but he also has a secondary interest. He covets her family journals, first-person accounts of the history of the Plains back to the days of the Indian wars. Dalva's grandfather, played by Steiger, is the custodian, and he is maintaining a family tradition of keeping the journals from outsiders.

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An incident in Dalva's professional life triggers an urge to return home and resume the search for her now-adult son. Michael pursues her back to Iowa, hoping he also might cajole the Northridge journals from her grandfather.

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By the time Michael catches up with Dalva, she has already made a new love connection with the dashing Sam Creekmouth (Boothe), who has a special bond with her family.

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The urban academic doesn't have a prayer competing with the rugged, free-living Sam. It's overkill that Sam also might have the connections to advance Dalva's quest for her son.

Dalva is a moderately interesting character study but a languid narrative. It is more an actor's film than a viewer's film. Not surprisingly, this scored points with the cast.

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"I prefer exploring a woman in search for her spiritual and emotional side, coming to terms with those things," Fawcett said. The actress, who recently did a Playboy pictorial and shows a lot of skin in Dalva, also understands marketing. "It's a wonderful love story. I think women will be attracted to this. I think the men will, too, because of the sexuality."

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Boothe said he welcomed the opportunity to do a film without a gun in his hand: "I like to do things that are about relationships, work with quality people and tell a different kind of story."

This aspect of Dalva also found favor with Coyote. "One of the reasons I was attracted to this particular project was the structure of the story was different and not predictable. Most TV, you can turn it on, get the good guy, the bad guy and the girl in the first 15 seconds and you can pick one of the scenarios. No one is going to be able to do this with this film. [The audience) might not like it because it might not fulfill expectations, but ABC has definitely taken a risk, which I respect. If this works, perhaps we'll be able to face more challenges like this in network television."

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It will be up to each viewer to decide whether this is a plea or a warning.