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Parents' Guide to

The Turning Point

By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Well-acted '70s dance drama has sex, mature themes.

Movie PG 1977 119 minutes
The Turning Point Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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What's the Story?

In THE TURNING POINT years before, DeeDee (Shirley MacLaine) had given up a major ballet career when she became pregnant with her dancer husband's child. They moved to Oklahoma to raise three kids and run a dance school. Later, her old company comes to town for a performance, and she reunites with Emma (Anne Bancroft), her old friend and rival, a prima ballerina now at the end of her stellar career. DeeDee believes she should have had Emma's career and is jealous and angry. DeeDee's daughter Emilia (Leslie Browne) is recruited by the company and heads to New York with DeeDee as chaperone, where both have affairs and DeeDee sorts out her regrets.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

This is a touching story about youth and age, regret, jealousy, art, and the choices people make, portraying each of those with great clarity, humor, and insight. Herbert Ross' directorial style can be a bit obvious -- people are always showing up at doorways just as something is about to happen, and a certain amount of gay dancer clichés and Russian machismo substitute for character study. But the masterful Anne Bancroft embodies the glory of great artistry and fame at the same time that she shows the pain her character's success has cost her. In one throwaway glance, she conveys all the future anguish and ecstasy she knows is ahead for the young dancer she is mentoring. If for nothing else, this record of Mikhail Baryshnikov dancing in his prime makes it more than worthwhile. The movie earned 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but didn't win any.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the way the movie reveals some of the worst of human nature -- jealousy and cutthroat careerism -- yet also affirms what is best in us: loyalty and forgiveness.

  • It seems as if the lonely Emma regrets not having a family, and the artistically stifled DeeDee regrets not sticking with her career. What do you think the movie wants you to feel about regrets? Does everyone have them, no matter what choices have been made?

  • Does the movie suggest that maturity is achieved when one accepts that every choice rules out lots of other interesting possibilities?

Movie Details

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