What If God Were the Sun?

John Edward became famous on American television as a medium who claimed to talk to the dead. 'What If God Were the Sun?' is based in part on a novel of his, and he's one of the executive producers of this TV film, which Lifetime aired on 14 May 2007, directed by Stephen Tolkin from a script by Janet Dulin Jones and Jamie Pachino.

Lacey Chabert plays Jamie Spagnoletti, an ER nurse busy planning her wedding to Jeff (Sam Trammell) who isn't on speaking terms with her father, a cop. One day, while she's treating a patient, he dies in the bay next door. Jamie blames herself, her life starts to fall apart and she ends up moved out of the ER to work with long-term patients.

That's where she meets Melissa Eisenbloom (Gena Rowlands), a wealthy, sharp-tongued woman with cancer who has decided to stop aggressive treatment, something her daughter Rachel (Sarah Rafferty) can't accept. Jamie ends up as her home nurse, and Melissa's faith that there's something after death runs straight into the scepticism of a young woman who believes in none of it.

It was shot in Canada, with music by Laura Karpman and Klea Scott also in the cast. Critics were hard on the story, but Variety and The Hollywood Reporter agreed the best thing in it was Rowlands, twice an Oscar nominee for 'A Woman Under the Influence' and 'Gloria'. The part earned her an Emmy nomination for best actress in a miniseries or TV film and a Screen Actors Guild nomination. Chabert had recently made 'Mean Girls', and two of her co-stars would soon become familiar TV faces: Trammell in 'True Blood', which premiered the following year, and Rafferty in 'Suits'.

• Drama