Review of Bluffing It

Dennis Weaver talked with great pride about his role in this film. He plays a blue-collar factory foreman with a loving wife and family, who has a terrible secret, he is totally illiterate. There is one painful scene at the very beginning of the film that made me angry, it shows him as a child being tormented by his classmates as "stupid" because of his illiteracy. What amazes me about this film, is how well he was able to hide his disability and the various methods that he used. He eats at the same diner all his life where he knows the menu and uses symbols on a notepad. The most pathetic scene in the film is where he accidentally goes into the ladies room because he cannot even read the sign and almost causes a fatal traffic accident because of his disability. Weaver really makes you feel sorry for his character, he is a very decent, proud man who just cannot admit that he needs help. I remember what made me angry about this film is that his son was such an ass when he finally admitted his problem. He wasn't supportive towards his father at all and was angry at him. I felt that was so wrong. Its appalling that we live in a country of such amazing technological advances, and yet there are people who cannot even read a job application. Students are often passed through high school who cannot even read at a grade school level. To me this is an indictment of both our society at large and of our educational system. This movie very tastefully and sensitively explores this subject. It is a message that needs to be heard. Dennis Weaver should have gotten an Emmy for his fine and touching performance. SPOILER ALERT!!!!!This movie had such a wonderful happy ending where his character is learning to read and it shows him reading a menu at a restaurant and realzing that he has been living on hamburgers for years and where he is reading a bedtime story to his little grandaughter. I thought that was a very nice touch.