The villain of the piece seems to be the only likeable person in this by-the-numbers TV movie thriller. The rest are unsympathetic cardboard cut-outs, who come across as shallow and complacent ... and they don't get any extra depth as the film progresses. Tracy Martin is good in a small part but is inderused here. Jean Louisa Kelly does her best to create a three dimensional character out of a script that appears to be written by looking through a reference book on mental illness and picking out illnesses the scriptwriters considered juicy, and does well to convey inner drama (the only one of the principle actors who do) when the script gives her character no plausible motivation to do what she does.
I seriously question the makers of TV movies in the USA who use mental illness as a shortcut to evil. Maligning an already misunderstood and persecuted faction of the population. I have lost count of the amount of US TV films (and cinema films) that follow this trope. Also there is also the overused trope that women who can't have children are dangerous to women who can ... and their babies. A highly irresponsible portrayal. The writers of this film should hang their heads in shame for creating this propaganda.
At the end of the film the three supposedly sympathetic characters shoot the villain dead and then the mother of the heroine just says, "Let's go," implying they are just going to leave the body there and not even bother to report it. The epilogue should show them facing manslaughter charges, or at least pleading the case for self-defense. Instead they are just shown having a saccharine filled 'happy ending' now that the baby has been born ... all problems left behind them. Highly irresponsible film making, but par-for-the-course it seems in Hollywood and US TV Movie drama.
I seriously question the makers of TV movies in the USA who use mental illness as a shortcut to evil. Maligning an already misunderstood and persecuted faction of the population. I have lost count of the amount of US TV films (and cinema films) that follow this trope. Also there is also the overused trope that women who can't have children are dangerous to women who can ... and their babies. A highly irresponsible portrayal. The writers of this film should hang their heads in shame for creating this propaganda.
At the end of the film the three supposedly sympathetic characters shoot the villain dead and then the mother of the heroine just says, "Let's go," implying they are just going to leave the body there and not even bother to report it. The epilogue should show them facing manslaughter charges, or at least pleading the case for self-defense. Instead they are just shown having a saccharine filled 'happy ending' now that the baby has been born ... all problems left behind them. Highly irresponsible film making, but par-for-the-course it seems in Hollywood and US TV Movie drama.