The Shady Hill Kidnapping (1982)

Set in the upper class suburbs of Shady Hill, a fictional town in New England. A young boy (Garrett Hanf) is erroneously presumed to have been kidnapped. When the police seem disinterested, the boy's Uncle (David Marshall Grant) writes a ransom note which spurs the town into action. Based on the short story by John Cheever (who adapted it for television) and directed by Paul Bogart (TORCH SONG TRILOGY). Cheever's satire on bourgeois suburbanites isn't nearly as clever or amusing as it thinks it is. In fact, it's as inane as its characters. While we're encouraged to laugh at them, we're also supposed to (eventually) care for them and that just doesn't happen. The problems of these upper class Caucasians are of their own stupidity and their own doing, so why should we care? The only amusing moments come from Celeste Holm as a celebrity peddling a youth serum on TV. The rest is trite. There is a nice score by Jonathan Tunick (best known as Stephen Sondheim's orchestrator). With George Grizzard, Judith Ivey, Paul Dooley and Polly Holliday.