Small Sacrifices

Two thumbs up to Farah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal and the ever talented John Shea.

So much for being a dumb blonde - Farah rocked. She took being "unfit" to a whole new level. I thought I had seen the best in her in "Extremities" but she once again showed the "acting world" that she is a force to be reckoned with. Ryan has still got the good looks and the acting to go with it.

John Shea's portrayal of the Prosecutor was RIGHT ON! He exhibited a determination that wasn't his job . . . . it simply was the right thing to do for the protection of the children.

A must have for a movie collector (it needs to be in DVD form also)!

Just when you think Farrah can play an incredibly sympathetic passive victim (the Burning Bed) or a victim turned enraged avenger (extremities) here comes a sociopathic monster you'd like to strangle for her arrogance and cruelty This is the best characterization I've ever seen from a once pretty face who turned heads with her beauty and serious ability to act. We miss her since we lost her far too early This is based on a true story and fascinating look at the antithesis of motherhood.

The TV movie format has been used endlessly to depict true crime stories, from parents who kill their children, to children who kill their parents, to rape, to theft, to abuse. I myself saw two or three similar films just last week. So what makes a rather unassuming TV movie from 1989 like "Small Sacrifices" stand out so much? It's hard to say. Certainly the acting has a lot to offer. Farrah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal, and John Shea - three well-known actors whom I was familiar with but never previously cared for - are the dramatic core of the script. They all perform well beyond expectations. Fawcett, for example, who I would've thought incapable of such depth, is alternately terrifying and emotionally unhinged. It's a breathtaking performance. The real surprise, however, is young Emily Perkins. Or not such a surprise for me, because I'd been familiar with her heartbreaking role in the last four seasons of "Da Vinci's Inquest". But even at the tender age of twelve, she is a fully realized actress of incredible range. Her testimony on the stand is so emotional that it left me in tears. This is a performance without cliché.

"Small Sacrifices" isn't yet another painful exercise in domestic unrest, like it might appear to be on the surface. David Greene seems very aware of what he wants to get out his film here, and he directs the human interaction brilliantly. It's a hard film, sure - really hard - but powerfully dramatic. One of the best of its kind.

Farrah Fawcett's Emmy-nominated performance is the centerpiece of SMALL SACRIFICES, a riveting, ABC mini-series based on the true story of Diane Downs, a cold-blooded woman who was sent to jail for murdering two of her three children. This teleplay presents Downs as the lonely, divorced working mother of three who appears on the outside to be a devoted and loving mother but as no qualms about putting her own needs first when the opportunity presents itself. While working at a post office, Diane begins a romance with one of her co-workers, Lew Lewiston (Ryan O'Neal)and things are going well until Diane learns that Lew doesn't like kids and has no desire to be a stepfather so Diane decides to kill her children. Fortunately, her daughter, somehow survives the brutal shooting and is taken into protective custody not only to protect her from further harm by her mother but to use her to help build a case to convict her mother. Fawcett gives the performance of her career...an icy, heartless bitch who shouts of her innocence throughout the proceedings, even though all evidence points to her and has the nerve to be baffled by the fact that her daughter wants nothing to do with her. O'Neal's role here is more in the way of stunt casting as he was Fawcett's real life romance at the time and is wasted in a thankless role, but there are two solid performances from John Shea and Gordon Clapp as the two police detectives caught in the deadly cat and mouse game of trying to slip Diane up in order to nail her for this horrendous crime. Despite it's almost three-hour length, I found this movie fascinating from start to finish, thanks primarily to a powerhouse performance from Farrah Fawcett who got the role of her career and ran with it.

After playing TV-movie victims for years, Farrah Fawcett is terrifically good (almost surprisingly so) cast as real-life child-killer Diane Downs, who tried to convince the police she and her kids were victims one night of a car-jacker with a gun. One is tempted to go on and on about Fawcett's multi-layered portrayal of a sociopath, yet this is a long movie--four hours with commercials--and Farrah has the burden of it resting on her performance (she carries it off with gusto). Ryan O'Neal is very strong, too, playing the lover who doesn't return her affections. A sad, violent story, but told with an intense, focused energy which makes it completely absorbing and ultimately moving. Farrah does Emmy-worthy work.