Sweetwater

Usually, made-for-TV movies turn out to be simply filler, without much substance. Not so in the case of Sweetwater, a film about the first group to perform at Woodstock, and then never heard from since. Amy Jo Johnson turns in a very impressive performance as Nansi, the band's lead singer, who suffers an agonizing blow to her career after a near-fatal car accident which scarred her vocal chords. The movie shows the height of her fame (Woodstock), and then the tragic crash and burn of a singer who refused to give up her life as a singer, until she almost lost her life to booze and destitution. The movie was pretty powerful emotionally, and VH-1 did a great job by following up the movie with a "behind the scenes" look at the real performers of the group, in a "where are they now" kind of format. The one thing I would've liked to see in the movie would have been a showcase of more of Sweetwater's songs. Unfortunately, the predominant song throughout the movie was "Motherless Child", which started to get on my nerves by the time the movie ended. But, all in all, a decent movie - one that VH-1 should be proud of.