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Rating 2¼
Directed by Peter Werner
Written by Joyce Eliason, based on a Reader’s Digest article written by Rena Dictor Le Blanc
Starring Kristen Bell (Gracie Thompson), Anne Heche (Rowena Lawson), Diane Ladd (Louela Lawson), Kristin Fairlie (Rose Carlton), Brian Atkins (Ryan Walker), David Gibson McLean (Jonny Blicker), Jack Armstrong (Robbie Locascio), Shedrack Anderson III (Tommy) and Sandra Caldwell (Mrs Thurston)
17-year-old Gracie Thompson lives with her self-destructive mother Rowena Lawson, her younger half-sister Rose and her younger half-brothers Brian, Jonny and Robbie. Each one has a different father, all of them absent. Rowena drinks, uses drugs, repeatedly hooks up with deadbeat boyfriends and the family are constantly moving from place to place, on the run from landlords, debt collectors and the police. When Rowena is caught and sent to jail, the children end up in juvenile facilities until they are rescued by their grandmother Louela. However, after Rose gets pregnant and moves in with the father, seemingly starting out down the same path as her mother, and Rowena turns up again, Gracie takes matters into her own hands and fights to be allowed to legally adopt her three half-brothers.
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‘Gracie’s Choice’ is a television movie made for the Lifetime Television channel and adheres closely to the tried and tested Lifetime formula. The story is based on an article that first appeared in Reader’s Digest in 2000 and told the story of a teenager called Amy who was given custody of three younger brothers. Although the story is initially presented with some small degree of authenticity, albeit decidedly sanitised, it does become increasingly saccharine and less believable, and as such less rewarding, even if it is based on true events.
Kristen Bell is a very competent actress, but I am not altogether convinced that her portrayal here or the character she plays is entirely successful. On occasions it is too easy to forget the hell that Gracie’s life has been up to now. On the other hand, Anne Heche is very good a portraying “crazy” and her character Rowena is the mother from hell, entirely self-absorbed and hell bent on self-destruction, although she does not necessarily deliberately set out to hurt her children. She is simply woefully and dangerously unfit to be responsible for them. Heche, who was nominated for an Emmy for her performance, claimed to have based it on her own experiences growing up.
Brian Atkins, in the role of Brian, the oldest of the three brothers, is quite effective in portraying Brian’s barely repressed anger. He suffers from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, as do the two younger brothers.
The film means well and does have merit. It is reasonably effective, up to a point. However, to be entirely successful and satisfactory it really needed to be less sanitised than this, although it is conforming to the Lifetime brand. All in all, though, this is a decent and decently acted made-for-television true story and its potential audience will already know what to expect.
Review posted 9 July 2009
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Rating 2½
Directed by Stephen T Kay
Written by Nancy Fichman, Jennifer Hoppe and Mark Kruger
Starring Anne Heche, Jonathan LaPaglia, Chris Sarandon, Kathleen Quinlan, David Andrews, Eva Longoria, Kate Jennings Grant, Gary Grubbs and Leigh Jones
Set in New Orleans, Emily Parker (Anne Heche, also one of the film’s producers) meets Billy Hytner (Jonathan LaPaglia) and they soon become engaged. Billy buys her an unusual antique engagement ring; a ring her friend Jeanie (Eva Longoria) claims gives off a bad vibe. Emily begins to have visions of a ghostly female figure and learns that the ring had once belonged to Marie Salinger (Leigh Jones), a young woman who disappeared years earlier. Marie’s finance Paul Hamlin (Chris Sarandon) was suspected of murdering her, but apart from her severed engagement ring finger, her body was never found.
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This 2004 made-for-television film follows an immediately recognisable tried and tested formula. It resembles Sam Raimi’s infinitely superior ‘The Gift’, a film that was co-written by Billy Bob Thornton. However, unlike Cate Blanchett’s character in that film, Emily Parker does not possess previously identified psychic abilities.
The film suffers from some very irritating editing, for which the director Stephen T Kay must take responsibility. However, it has a decent cast and taken for what it is, it is perfectly watchable, if derivative and ultimately rather run of the mill. I would happily watch it again.
Kay had previously directed the horrendously misguided remake of ‘Get Carter’ and went on to make ‘Boogeyman’, a low-budget horror for Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures production company.
‘The Dead Will Tell’ is based on an alleged true story told by the medium James Van Praagh, who is also one of the executive producers. Praagh is a co-executive producer of the successful CBS network television series ‘Ghost Whisperer’, which is now in its fourth season and attracts up to ten million viewers a week.
Review posted 21 February 2009
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Rating 3½
Directed by Jim Gillespie
Written by Kevin Willimason from the book by Lois Duncan
Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr
‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ was released in America in October 1997, one month after the start of the second season of ‘Buffy’.
Written by Kevin Williamson (the creator of ‘Dawson’s Creek’) and coming on the back of the enormous critical and commercial success of his film ‘Scream’, this one received mixed reviews at the time but was a sizeable box office hit, grossing just under $126 million. Opinion about the film seems to have become increasingly negative in the years since then; partly because Williamson’s reputation has declined, partly because slasher-movies in general are to some extent out of fashion, but largely I suspect because the main cast (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr in particular) have all become somewhat contentious figures in recent years.
This is not a piece of high-art cinema but it’s a perfectly decent and well-acted film. In fact, I would be inclined to count it amongst my own personal favourites. Gellar and Ryan Phillippe, in particular, both give excellent performances. Although Gellar’s character, Helen Shivers, is vacuous and self-absorbed, Gellar successfully taps into her vulnerability, especially after her friendship with Julie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) has been irreconcilably damaged.
The film also features Anne Heche, who I happen to like. She might have had her troubled moments, but that has got nothing to do with her talents as an actor. Also, a favourite band of mine, Southern Culture On The Skids, is briefly featured during the beach party scene, another reason why I feel pre-disposed towards the film.
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17-year-old Gracie Thompson lives with her self-destructive mother Rowena Lawson, her younger half-sister Rose and her younger half-brothers Brian, Jonny and Robbie. Each one has a different father, all of them absent. Rowena drinks, uses drugs, repeatedly hooks up with deadbeat boyfriends and the family are constantly moving from place to place, on the run from landlords, debt collectors and the police. When Rowena is caught and sent to jail, the children end up in juvenile facilities until they are rescued by their grandmother Louela. However, after Rose gets pregnant and moves in with the father, seemingly starting out down the same path as her mother, and Rowena turns up again, Gracie takes matters into her own hands and fights to be allowed to legally adopt her three half-brothers. 
Kristen Bell is a very competent actress, but I am not altogether convinced that her portrayal here or the character she plays is entirely successful. On occasions it is too easy to forget the hell that Gracie’s life has been up to now. On the other hand, Anne Heche is very good a portraying “crazy” and her character Rowena is the mother from hell, entirely self-absorbed and hell bent on self-destruction, although she does not necessarily deliberately set out to hurt her children. She is simply woefully and dangerously unfit to be responsible for them. Heche, who was nominated for an Emmy for her performance, claimed to have based it on her own experiences growing up.
