Due East

This is a "movie of the week" variety presentation. Everything turns out great at the end and everyone is happy, so what's wrong with this picture? Nothing in life is this sweet! Small town people int this community are so understanding of a situation like what Mary Faith encounters, let alone, accept her and never turn their backs to her.

Clara Bryant is good as the young woman who finds herself in the family way and decides to have the child. Robert Forster makes a rare appearance as the father of the pregnant teen ager. Cate Capshaw is also very effective as the woman who befriends Mary Faith. Finally Cybill Shepherd plays the love interest of Robert Foster.

No surprises in this one. We've seen it all before!

Although many in our pseudo-sophisticated society may find this film mundane and disparagingly label it a "chick flik," I found it well acted, directed and worth watching. Of course, it is not "On the Waterfront" or "East of Eden," but it does capture the difficulties associated with single parenthood, meddlesome relatives, divorce, and, of course, the main theme of teenage pregnancy. It attempts to address too many issues and that weakens it, but overall is does a decent enough job.

Although the story takes place in the South, it was filmed in Vancouver, and the charm of Vancouver was captured nicely.

Overall, give it a chance; it's worth watching.

Of all the movies I have seen on the Lifetime channel, this is one of the best. It has a great cast, a lot of recognizable names like Kate Capshaw and Cybill Shepard, and it has a good storyline that never drags. There are a lot of characters, so the movie doesn't just focus on Mary Faith's pregnancy. It shows her friend's situation with her ex-husband and the changes she goes through over the course of the movie. Then there is the relationship her father has with his girlfriend and the grieving parents of the father of her child. Even though it is a little unrealistic that the southern community she lives in would be so understanding and supportive of the choices she makes, the rest of the movie is very realistic - in what the girl goes through and in dialogue. Also, I love the message of this movie. It's not all preachy and doesn't make Mary Faith look like a slut or a typical "unwed mother". I would recommend this movie to anyone who would like to see an above average Lifetime-esque movie.

Straight from chick flick hell into your homes courtesy of Showtime comes this sappy story about a small town (Due East) girl who gets pregnant and then has to deal with...um, well, getting expelled from school and lots of people who want to help her beyond all reason, throwing money at her problem, etc. The films fails to deal with he real problems of unwed-mother-to-be-hood, offers marginally convincing performances, and distills to just so much blathering. Recommended for females only.

This is a very sad story, grievously politicizing small town values and small minded thinking about abortion related matters. Not wanting to be "too" controversial, it merely sets us up with all the obvious options, and then leaves us with an unexpected solution equally as tragic as the others. First we are given a moral dilemma which would be unfortunate for anyone, accept that in this case the girl is the valedictorian of her high school class! How could this happen with the brightest girl in school? Well, because the film wants us to question stereotypes, but then makes of everyone else a strawman, to be knocked down effortlessly. Even the "boy" involved is trivialized into a "James Dean" stereotype, thus making a hypocrisy of the attempt to un-stereotype the girl.

In short, the story is very manipulative and dependent on sentimentality to further its sociological agenda. The deeper issues are merely glossed over in order to promote an "anything goes" mentality, even while giving a nod of recognition to the obvious consequences. The future life for the girl, and the future life for the child, will be immeasurably changed by whatever happens, and in ways hardly advantageous to either. But the film gives a muddled and trivialized focus on the problem of teen pregnancy, which ultimately makes a mockery out of everyone including the girl. It is sophistry at its worst, merging good and bad arguments together until they "all" seem hopelessly wrong.