Ihre einzige Chance

I used to love the TV movies from the 70s & 80s. Then in the 90s the whole genre sort of...I don't know....but form 1990 on there really haven't been any great ones worth mentioning. Except for HER LAST CHANCE. HER LAST CHANCE was a TV movie in 1996. I watched it not expecting much and fell in love with it. It stars Kellie Martin (Life Goes On) as a girl who likes to party hearty and has no idea why her mother would put her in a re-hab clinic. "I never dropped out of high school, I never stole, its not like I was a Drug Lord"...these are all things Kellie says. When she finally DOES break down and accept the help from the program (and her counselor Jenna "Dharma" Elfman), she gets released and doesn't follow the first big rule: do NOT hang out with your old friends who still party. Of course the first person she hooks up with on her first day out is her no-good boyfriend.And soon she's back to partying with her old friends like she did in the...ahem...."Good Old Days". I want to take a moment to say that some scenes of this movie...particularly some of the scenes where she's partying with her friends...reminded me of some of the partying days I had as a teenager, and I also had to agree now that Im an adult that the first big rule about not hanging out with your old friends is true. If I still partied with my old friends Im pretty sure I wouldn't be here right now. But I digress..... the movie also has a sub-plot about a murder thrown in. THAT parts a little silly and unnecessary, and I,nor Im sure other audience members could NOT identify with that. But all-in-all a good movie that they sometimes play on LIFETIME network(I taped it from them last week!)

This is a very mature film about drug-addiction,not like many other movies with this theme.Kellie Martin plays a pretty neurotic girl who gets involved with the thriller-lifestile of her friends and gets accused of her boyfriends death after a wild party.Then she realises that this isn't what she really wants and that she must have psychological help.... One of the greatest scenes is with the party by the swimming-pool,with "Waydown" by Catherine Wheel on the background. I gave it a 9/10!

Having followed the career of Miss Martin for quite some time I was very disappointed that she agreed to play in this movie. I love the work of Miss Martin: she is a great actress and I am pleased to see her in E.R. but this movie was a complete catastrophe. During the complete running time of the movie I was always distracted by the fact that she was not the girl to play this part i.c. opposite of J. Brandis there couldn't have been a greater difference between two people: she was playing the quite gentle shy girl, he was the know-it/seen it all kind of guy who is living from his parents money and has yet to prove that he can earn his income independently! She was on drugs!!! Come on! I am sorry to say that Miss Martin was totally miscast! Being the producer on this show answers a lot! The other thing that annoyed me very much was the overweight of Miss Martin: I even didn't recognize her at the beginning of the film due to her very round face!

As she wrestles with sanity and desire in this deftly-paced, cathartic drama, Kellie Martin shows yet again that she can infuse even the darkest character with strength and serenity, dappled with her signature girlish charm. Getting a potent dose of discipline and understanding from her ex-junkie counselor (played with stern compassion by Jenna Elfman) Martin makes an odyssey from spiraling recklessness to confidence and control by discovering the sinewy character she never knew she had. Patti LuPone dazzles as her concerned but misguided mother-- she is never gullible but always faithful when it counts. Jonathan Brandis portrays with aplomb the petulant suburban rebel whose suave facade hides a well of desperation and loneliness. Scenes between Brandis and Martin are eerily scored with a hard rock cover of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love". Not to miss: drug binges masterfully intercut with an imaginary music video and Martin's final dope dreams punctured by a glimpse of herself in the coke mirror!

Kellie Martin plays an addicted drug an alcohol user oblivious to the damage her actions are doing to herself as well as her mother...Her mother is played by Patti Lupone who played Kellie's mom in the series Life Goes On...This movie was well acted and Kellie Martin rises to be the best and the worst in this thought provoking film...for those of you who have seen her on ER, ignore the fact that her interaction and dialogue does not even compare to her presence as an actress in everything else she does...