Due East

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.

The story is a setup to blast conservative-religious attitudes toward a pregnant teenager attending high school. It does a good job and it's hard to believe a principal would actually expell a valedictorian girl just because she was pregnant and it made people uncomfortable. They way she was, everybody loved her and she got lots of support and the mean old principal had to back down, especially after she wrote a brilliant letter in the town newspaper that got her lots of support. What was satisfying was the quality of the acting of the girl, who had a quiet simple honesty and intelligence about her. In a pivotal scene the principal blusters "how could such an intelligent girl do something so STUPID?" She answered simply that she didn't PLAN to get pregnant... no surprise. The father of the child died and in the end... well, better not give it away. It's a touching scene.

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.

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.

I saw this movie recently one night and liked what I saw. It's a touching story about a young girl played by Clara Bryant who must deal with the trials and tribulations of being a pregnant teenager in the highly-conservative South and try to fix her relationship with her father, in which the two have fallen out of touch since the day her mother died. Bryant is a talented young actress and does a beautiful job of showing the emotions that her character goes through. It's not the type of movie you'll watch over and over again, but it's definitely worth watching at least once. If you like stories of triumph that make you feel good in the end, I recommend seeing this film.