It was big news when Streep took leave from her cinematic playground and ventured into the boob tube with this maudlin made-for-television film.  Not that Streep and a solid cast don’t give it the good ’ole college try as they work with a cookie-cutter script intent on doing them no real favors.

In the grand tradition of countless parents vs. modern medicine films like Lorenzo’s Oil, …first do no harm casts Streep as a plucky mom from the heartland that takes on the doctors and hospitals that don’t have answers to why her young epileptic son (Adkins) continues his violent seizures.   Refusing to sit back and condemn her son to a lifetime of hospital stays and prescription drugs, she goes against the advice of physicians (namely Janney’s chilly doctor written like a villain from a Batman movie) and seeks alternative treatment in this true-life tale.

Ward provides nice support as Streep’s nicely supportive husband while Martindale is her usual warm presence as a family friend.  The late actors Oni Faida Lampley and Leo Burmester (The Abyss) also make strong impressions in their peripheral roles.  Director Abrahams (diverting from his spoof films Airplane! Hot Shots! and The Naked Gun) took on this project as a labor of love and makes it feel pretty lugubrious.