User reviews

I remember watching this movie as a teen, of course very sensitive subject matter. What's so heart-wrenching about it is that is a true story. And I can't imagine what it's like to look for the child you gave up years ago all to find out he was killed by a sick abusive parent! It really makes you think. And you wonder how often does sick things like this happen! This is not a movie you want to watch over and over especially if you're emotional with subject matter like this, which I am. Beverly D'Angelo's acting skills as, always were spectacular.

I remember watching this movie when I was about 14 years old on Lifetime. Beverly D'Angelo plays a young mother who is forced to give up her newborn son for adoption. Her son gets adopted by this older Christian couple. They already have a 4 year old son(Miko Hughes). The wife and husband seem normal, kind, etc. Then one day the adopted son(Cortland Mead)who's about 4 now acts up one day at the dinner table. The mother(Dana Ivey) gives her adoptive son a beat down while the father and brother sit at the table and act like nothing is happening. Then that night, the mother makes the boy kneel on a broomstick and makes him say prayers repeatedly. It isn't until about 20 years or so later that D'Angelo tries to see what her adopted son is up to when she recevies the tragic news of her life. Very good movie!!

I first saw this film when it originally aired and it affected me so deeply that decades later, when I myself became a parent, I found myself with a real need to rewatch it. After more than a year of searching, I finally found it. All these years later it still breaks my heart, still touches me, still terrifies me. Excellent story, it's too bad it's largely true - no one deserves this!

The movie in no way, shape or form even begins to do the true-life story justice. I just finished reading the book "Death in White Bear Lake" and then watched the movie. The movie is very poorly put together, and far too many important details missing. If I hadn't read the book first, I'm not sure I would've gotten much out of the movie.

As for the true story that the movie was based on, I have to agree with the judge. Lois Jurgens should've been locked and the key thrown away. The 8 years out of her 25 year sentence that she served was FAR too lenient for the horror she inflicted on Dennis. And that sorry excuse for a husband Harold, he should've been strung upside down on a tree. Neither of them should've been approved for adoption. Harold wasn't man enough to stand up for his innocent little boy, who was terrorized by Lois. And I understand why he didn't...my mom (God rest her soul) was a great deal like Lois, and my dad (God rest his soul) a LOT like Harold. HOWEVER, having said that, Harold had a lot of options for getting help for Dennis without Lois EVER finding out that he reported her. Now Lois' brother Jerome, he should've been tossed in prison right alongside his sister. I am certain that he destroyed witness statements and threatened his siblings.

Dennis was 10 months younger than I am. To think that he never really had a chance in life just makes me sick beyond words. As a Christian, it is my duty to forgive others as Christ has forgiven me, but when someone takes their anger and hatred out on innocent children, that is almost more than I can stomach. I hope that both Harold & Lois made peace with God before they died.

This story of yet another small child, abused and battered to the point of death, is heartbreaking and poignant. Unfortunately, the actors and the movie itself just aren't up to the task. Almost everyone seemed like an amateur acting in a high school production, reading their lines in strangely stilted tones. Beverly D'Angelo's portrayal of the birth mother was so shockingly off-balance that I began to wonder why I never noticed what a poor actress she is. When trying to enlist the help of a reporter to investigate the possible murder of her son many years earlier, she reverts to flirting and teasing. When he asks her who the murder victim was, she answers with a big smile, bright eyes (still flirting) and a strangely triumphant grin on her face, "My son!" It was grotesque and repulsive. Initially the assistant D.A. who is going to prosecute the case is hostile and unsympathetic to the birth mother - the next thing you know, the A.D.A is trying to convince the victim's surviving brother to be a witness for the prosecution because she (the A.D.A) was "adopted too" blah, blah. We are never told or shown how this turn of heart came about. Eh...why go on, it's a heartbreaker but the acting was so bizarre and annoying it's almost unbearable to watch.

A teenage mom is forced to give up her baby boy for adoption. 19 years later, as she tries to find her son again, she learns that he died in his foster home at the age of three. Nobody thought relevant that the birth mother be informed. She discovers that he has in fact been murdered at the hands of his foster mother.

Based on "A death in White Bear Lake" book, this movie stays close enough to the real story, but fails to bring out the fact that the whole community knew and covered the abuse of this child for years (before, and after he was murdered).

It was a great TV movie, way different than your usual abused-kid-of-the-week afternoon flick, and I really wish somebody would release it !

The acting in this movie left a lot to be desired. With the exception of the wicked stepmother, the others seemed to give no real effort, and thus their characters had very little life to them.

At some points the dialog is laughable, which is the case of this film, is not a good thing.

Beverly Deangelo was very good in this movie about a mother's fight for the memory of Her Baby.

Ivey was really scary as the adoptive mother Who beat and Killed the little boy. I used to like Max Gail on Barney Miller, But I couldn't understand why His Charictor didn't put a stop to the Abuse of His adopted son. But all in all it was a good TV Drama. I'd rate it a Seven out of Ten.

What might be considered a made-for-TV "Lifetime movie" was actually produced by and shown on NBC originally. But it's definitely the type of movie that would show up on the Lifetime Network.

Beverly D'Angelo stars as a mom who wants justice for her adopted son's death. Based on a true story, it covers all the main points in the saga but blatantly appears quite abridged. Not that it matters. Acting is meh and it's just a straightforward story that's told with no twists or turns or nothing' like that.

Not the worst 85 minutes ever but nothing memorable.

5.0 / 10 stars

--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener

I am not the audience for Lifetime Channel movies but just happened to see Beverly D'Angelo (always beautiful and here looking gorgeously plump) in this, so stayed to watch. When I saw Dana Ivey appear, I was sure I was in for something wonderful - but I wasn't.

I am not that familiar with Lifetime Channel sorts of movies - and as a conservative middle aged man, don't think I'm the intended audience. This is a social issue, soapy victim succeeds against the odds movie. I'm not a fan of such movies.

The movie is very strange. I kept awaiting a twist or series of twists because: a) the direct evidence against the stepmother is very slight (she's presented as a nightmare mother but there's no eyewitness at the time of death, no instrument of death, etc.), b) an actress of the caliber and eminence of Dana Ivey had thus far been given hardly any lines (and allowed only a sort of Hammer Films wicked stepmother look), and c) the "victim" (biological mom) repeatedly asked about how much punishment the wicked stepmother would receive - and how soon it could be inflicted.

Amazingly, there's no twist at all! The victim was simply eager! The disappointment is strong! The dialogue is truly terrible - the judge actually says "why if I could, I would throw away the key" when passing sentence! (Yes, this was first heard in a drama in 1908 - B.C.).

So, except for the (quite real) pleasure in seeing the over-ripe curves of Beverly D'Angelo in skirts and dresses made with more slender women in mind, this movie's a bust.