Saving Milly

• 2005

Made-for-TV docudrama based on journalist Morton Kondracke’s memoir about his wife, who died of Parkinson’s in 2004. The movie hits all the conventional beats for this kind of story—opposites attract, she rescues him from alcoholism, she dies tragically after a heroic struggle, inspiring others to take up the fight against the disease. But Vassar shows up multiple times here, as it really was a thing in the memoir (as a conservative journalist, he had an image of the blueblood wife who would be an asset for his career, but he fell for a liberal, free-spirit “part Jewish, part Christian, part Mexican therapist/activist).