Silencing Mary

Not only is this an excellent vehicle for Melissa Joan Hart, the precocious little darling of the pre-teen sit-com, "Clarissa Explains It All," and lately of ABC's "Sabrina, the Teenaged Witch," but is a fine little MOW in its own right. The script is tidy, the direction steady and the story nonsensational, but uncompromised. The big-time college football culture is captured well.

Hart plays campus newspaper reporter Mary Stuartson who pursues the story of an attempted cover-up by "Cornwell University" of the date rape of her roommate by star quarterback Clay Roberts. Hart is modestly heroic as she works to nail Roberts, played with testosterone cockiness and an edge of psychopathology by, I believe, Lochlyn Munro.

This movie works especially well for Hart because as a reporter she gets to talk a lot, asking questions, and she is a great talker; and when talking her face becomes expressive and natural and very winning. If she is forced to just mug a lot, as she does on Sabrina, she tends to fall back on a repertoire of expressions that soon begins to repeat.

I realized while watching this that Melissa Joan Hart is at her best as a fighter. She's not just plunky, but she's strong, and that's really no surprise because, if you've been pursuing a career as an actress since you were a little kid, you'd be tough too.

Clarissa fans will be happy to see that Hart gets to model six or seven different hair-dos and a number of cute outfits, and there are several Clarissa-style close-ups of her with minimal makeup so that her freckles show and her big blue eyes, like marbles in well water, are shown to advantage.

Notable is the fine performance by Lisa Dean Ryan as Mary's friend who was raped.

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A very slow paced but aggressive investigation by a campus journalist played by Melissa Joan Hart leads to the apprehension of an identified rapist who happened to be one of the outstanding football player of their campus. For Mary, there's no such thing as backing out for what she have started as she was really motivated to pursue the justice that her friend "Molly" deserves even if its the reputation of the whole campus administration which is at stake. As for the very poor intensity mood of playing the role of Mary, so is the way the movie evolves into a lousy concept of a thriller film w/c doesn't even earned a climax. The only accelerating factor was that it was topped by a very energetic, strong appealing "Melissa Joan Hart" who for the very first place should not supposed accepted the role because she have her self credited with great sitcom's such as her adoring "Clarissa" and "Sabrina" and what would be a possible feedback was that this film would be a stumbling block to her flourishing career. For what I know...she's the only cream of this CRAP.

In my work with the only nationwide non-profit organization, Security On Campus, Inc. dedicated exclusively to the issue of college campus crime prevention and student awareness I see all too often the type of campus violence and `cover-up' through secret campus courts portrayed in the movie `Silencing Mary.' In fact we receive numerous calls and requests for information every month from campus reporters such as `Mary' who are facing similar situations.

Its depiction of a campus rape and the subsequent crusade by `Mary,' the victim's roommate and a student journalist played exceedingly well by Melissa Joan Hart, for justice was very well done and accurately researched.

This was the first television movie that I have ever seen that I felt truly reflected and encompassed all of the various complex issues associated with how rape and other violent crimes are dealt with on our nation's college and university campuses. Although it would not be possible to address all of these issues in depth in 2 hours, this movie comes closer than any others I've seen.

This movie definitely shows something and sheds light on what happens in most institutions today, and shows how one gurl just with the help of her newspaper manages to get things done, her editor has complete faith in her and doesn't publish something important, because it would harm her friend... and when it was the right time she took the necessary action.

The movie overall got a rating of 9 from me , because its got everything, i mean it keeps you entertained, and moreover, they have acted really well, for a TV movie, its really high quality acting that deserves alot of credit.

I actually flipped to Lifetime channel by mistake, just as this movie was beginning, and ended-up watching it.

It certainly deals with a serious issue, probably more prevalent than we realize, in terms of this type of attack of a young woman by an ego-maniacal fellow-student, who feels he's above the system, and, unfortunately, often is.

The cast here was believable, and the performances credible. A lot of these Canadian/Lifetime flicks are decidedly "over-the-top." However, this is one I might label as "under-the-top."

While appreciating the fact that it wasn't presented in an overblown fashion, this film somehow seemed like a record being played at a slower speed than proper, the 96 minutes seemed like many more, and it had the effect of looking like a shorter film, looped over-and-over, seemingly going on and on and on and ON - before reaching its inevitable and predictable conclusion.

Yet the engaging characters and performances made it better than the average film of this type, despite these criticisms.

And while these pictures often "milk" the climax, this one could have given it a bit more detail and length.