Untamed Love

Most negative reviews on here relate to the fact it does not fully follow the book, but as someone who never read the book I found this TV movie to be excellent. Ashlee Lauren who plays the young child Caitlin was outstanding. I was surprised that IMDB doesn't even give here a credit and I had to search elsewhere for who she is. Cathy Lee Crosby is also good in her role but the rest of the cast were not ass convincing. But it was the story that hooked me. I felt sad that any child had to go through what this poor girl did, and with such a high IQ it shows how the education and social systems fail such ones.

Untamed Love is based on a true story adapted from the book One Child. However it has the sheen of a 1990s typical made for cable television film and not a very good one at that.

Maggie (Cathy Lee Crosby) is a devoted teacher to a class of students with special educational needs. She reluctantly accepts a 6 year old girl, Caitlin who comes from a disturbed background and refuses to speak. Caitlin who is uncooperative at first slowly blossoms.

However Maggie finds out that Caitlin may be sent to a state mental institution and she and her lawyer boyfriend fights to keep her out especially as it seems Caitlin has emotionally developed a lot and has a high IQ.

The problem with the movie is that it is like a lot of true life films of that era. Emotionally manipulative, half baked and flatly scripted and directed. It lacks grittiness. Caitlin comes from a rough, dirty background but we never really get the feel of it although they make the father out to be a boorish, trailer trash scumbag.

There are hints that her father sexually abuses Caitlin but that aspect of the story is not fully explored apart from when she is suddenly taken to hospital.

The film has been sanitised so much you can smell the antiseptic through the television screen.

i have spent so long looking for the title of this movie. i was obsessed. i so loved this movie when i first saw it. i was abused as a child and i related to the child. i think this is an amazing movie that is so touching. it really makes you think and feel. i did not know it was based on a real story. people have posted that its nothing like the book therefore not any good. i don't believe that just because a movie is different it's bad. the movie was amazing and no movie follows it's book counterpart perfectly. think of it as individual and you will be sure to love it. i would recommend it to anyone. i would like to publicly thank 'mickeysroom' from the lifetimetv website for telling me the name of this movie. you've saved me from spending any more time looking for it and now i can enjoy learning more about it.

I haven't actually seen this film, but I wanted to point out that it is based on Torey Hayden's book One Child, which is about a 6 year old girl called Sheila-

Sheila came into Torey Hayden's class for "special children" at the age of 6 after having tied a 3-year-old child to a tree and critically burned him. (from the back of the book)

Torey herself, on her website (www.torey-hayden.com) says that this film was not as good as she wanted it to be. If you want to get the real story, read One Child (and Tiger's Child- the sequel). Also, go to her website, which also has a message board to discuss her books and other stuff.

This movie butchers the real book on which it is based. The Maggie character in no way reflected the teaching methods or philosophies of her real life counterpart; John Getz ("Dan") plays a complainer who is just as far removed from his real counterpart as Maggie. The script and acting were stiff and unconvincing. This movie shows the downside of literary license.

The real book on which this inadvertently mocks will not be identified by title here to a) protect the innocent, including the real people whose lives on which it is about and b) not to associate it; those whom it is about or its author in any way, shape and form to this trite tragedy of the week.