Prayers for Bobby

The truth can be heartbreaking. Mary Griffith realized this when her son Bobby jumped off of a freeway into oncoming traffic. I just finished watching this movie and I must say... this movie is beyond touching. The acting was fantastic and it's message was very inspiring. Prayers for Bobby shows the struggles that gay youth and their families can go through, whether that means failing or triumph. This movie not only touches on the issues of homosexuality but also on pushing religion to far on someone, suicide and coming to terms with who you are. Life isn't always made up of rainbows and butterflies and this movie expresses that without holding anything back.

I cried my eyes out, so maybe I shouldn't raise any objections, but... many things in this beautifully made movie were more simplistic than they needed to be.

The priest called Mary's attention to commands in the Bible she obviously wasn't taking literally in her life: we should stone disobedient children to death, we shouldn't eat shellfish. She then looks up these passages and tells the priest she has read them, and continues to raise questions about his reasoning. But earlier in the movie the family amuses itself with Bible quizzes -- I say a phrase, you tell me the book and chapter it's from. How could a woman who clearly knew the Bible better than she knew her own son not already have read Deuteronomy and Leviticus backwards, forwards, and inside out? For a self-convinced Christian like Mary, the contradictions between the passages in the Bible she liked and the ones she didn't like would have been explained away long before the events of this story.

Also, as another poster has said, the story didn't really lead us to understand why the boy did what he did. There's a hint that his boyfriend was seeing other guys, he got a really nasty birthday present from his mother, he was very lonely at the hospital where he worked, but -- the dots weren't really connected. It felt like a couple of scenes had been cut, with the effect that at the climactic moment I found myself asking "Wha'?" instead of feeling the horrible inevitability of it.

Why am I criticizing a movie that gave me the best cry I've had in months? Because movies on Lifetime, even the best ones, always pull back from the edge. There is always at least to some degree an ironed-out, homogenized, Canadian-locationized blandness to the storytelling (even though this one wasn't shot in Canada.) What if they let a movie actually be itself? What if they aimed for Sundance quality nuance, naturalism, emotion, unexpectedness in storytelling? The writing and direction on this movie were first-rate, for what it was (and Sigourney Weaver and Ryan Kelley ripped my heart out)-- but I feel that both writer and director could have gone all the way with it and made it a MOVIE.

I wonder why they didn't.

Sigourney Weaver hits a home-run performance as a right-wing bible carrying nut who can't accept the fact that her younger son is gay.

She resorts to just about everything possible to get him to amend his ways. She sends him to therapy, constantly belittles him and uses the bible frequently to justify her disdain for his lifestyle.

A confused and bewildered young man, Bobby eventually commits suicide. The real tragedy here is to get his mother thinking that the condemnation of gays is really not the way to go.

The film is a very good one as it especially comes to grips with the church's condemnation of the gay life style and the use of the bible to distort this way of living.

To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to watching Prayers for Bobby at all. I had seen the previews for weeks and since it was a "Lifetime" original, I had low expectations and even made fun of it with my friends. All that changed when I saw how wonderful it actually turned out to be. Prayers for Bobby is an emotionally and physically tiring film that entertains from start to finish.

The movie is just so clever at times. While it is thin and bland too, it is brilliantly played out and executed in the sense that you actually care what's going on and what's going to happen to these characters. They keep you interested with problem after problem and therefore they don't have enough time to let you get bored. Sigourney Weaver plays an amazing role as well, and the movie is just so endearing that I really lose myself in it every time I watch it.

It was a truly spectacular film; one of the best "made for TV"s I have seen, and it was a splendid job well done for all the cast and crew. If you think you can enjoy, I suggest you see it right away.

The whole movie I was crying profusely. The cast was terrific. A must-see, especially for gay people and family of gay people. A gay youth is outcast by his mother and he struggles to accept his homosexuality. He eventually is able to leave his family for Portland, OR, but his mother's emotional/biblical abuse remains scarring his mind. I don't want to spoil what happens in Portland, but you will certainly find this a movie that makes you feel deeply for all the characters involved. I really felt connected to all the characters. This movie was certainly a movie that would be great to watch with someone you care for, as you will be crying the whole time. This movie points out the horrors of the religious Right, and criticizes the arguments against homosexuality.