‘The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn’

The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (Sunday, May 9; 9 to 11 p.m.; CBS) brings together Sidney Poitier, Mary-Louise Parker, and Dianne Wiest for a much happier occasion. Sidney may be the world’s oldest carpenter, down-home in some idyllic South where he’s the best-kept secret of appreciative town folk – tireless, ageless, philanthropic, and undisturbed in splendid isolation until the usual greedy developers seek his land for the usual shopping mall. And when he declines to sell, they try to have the courts declare him incompetent, importing Mary-Louise to do this dirty psychiatric work. Mary-Louise will, of course, fall for him, as has Dianne, who runs the local diner and whose strong feelings are of much longer duration but of less utility than the visiting shrink’s. Everybody will end up in a hospital for a lube job and a life change. It’s a lovely little movie, and Mary-Louise is a lovely huge talent.

‘The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn’