Sex & the Single Mom

I watched 'More Sex & The Single Mom' on TV, and was curious about what went before. Fortunately, I was able to purchase 'Sex & The Single Mom' on DVD from the Amazon Marketplace at a reasonable price, which caused me no regrets after it was viewed.

This is not a salacious movie to titillate voyeurs. If I thought that was the case, the DVD would have been of no interest to me. Rather, it tells a tale of the natural desires and specific temptations faced by a divorced mother and her daughter. The key to my enjoyment of a movie of this nature is that the characters are both likable and plausible. Those criteria were more than adequately met. However, as a firm believer in marriage, no premarital sex and 'until death do us part', this movie does raise issues for me. Since judging others is not for us, but is God's prerogative, I will be pleased to watch this film again when time permits, especially as there was no noticeable bad language as far as I can remember.

I am glad I came to this after watching the subsequent events, as this film would have ended too inconclusively for my liking otherwise. 'Sex & The Single Mom' is clearly Part 1 of a bilogy. (! See my comment for 'More Sex & The Single Mom')

Many Lifetime flicks contain the spouse with the "hidden past," the psychotic neighbor or babysitter or student, who usually whacks a few folks and at the climax wields a carving knife at the hero or heroine. Most of the balance of the network's offerings are like this one: all sorts of romantic, sexual and family angst amount the personnel in the cast.

Here, Gail O'Grady (moving-up on Meredith Baxter in this genre), and her daughter deal with all sorts of feminine romantic problems, but if there is any relationship to "real life," I didn't see it.

Everyone has problems, and they all have a significant depth to the person(s) dealing with them, and one has to deal with them as they occur, and proceed onward.

If real-life problems can sometimes occur in what might be termed "ten-foot square by a mile deep," Gail's problems here, as with most femme leads in this type of offering, seem to be "a mile wide and three feet deep." One follows another, and there is no way to empathize either with her or her daughter in any realistic manner.

And where the female characters here are shallow and somewhat vacuous, the males (typically on Lifetime) are doophuses, and (if possible) even more shallow.

The actors are pleasant in appearance, C-level in terms of material and performances, and while the subject matter is not unimportant, the way it is presented here is.

P.S. I saw this flick on a weekend morning. Was doing some other things, and another person was watching, and my fascination was in it mediocrity. The sequel, "More Sex..." had begun, and about a half-hour into it, I noticed the former lover who had impregnated her, and had earlier announced his returning to his wife (but only after "messing-up" the bed clothes with her in their hotel room) appeared at her door, announcing a now impending divorce. He was in process of wondering why she hadn't informed him of "his son," and wimping about, just as we had to leave. However, had I not had to leave the set then, I'd have changed channels. From this point I'd have preferred somebody stick a knitting needle into my eye rather than having to endure whatever the remaining 1-1/2 hours had in-store.

A Good movie though the script does get a bit hokey at times. It's not trying to change the world, just share a story. O'Grady & Show as the lead characters share quite an electrical chemistry & the 2 are a great pair on screen. It's as if they "know" each other! O'Grady is a beauty & Show is a babe! What a team! From a literary standpoint, there are some incredible themes and the filming of the parallel themes of the the mother rediscovering her sexuality while her daughter begins to discover hers, are well done. The mother/daughter relationship overtones, not just between O'Grady's character & her young teen, but between O'Grady & her mother, were interesting, realistic & could have been further pursued a bit. Over all, it's a chick flick, but a good flick!

I enjoyed the sequel more- I am wondering why "More sex and the single mom" isn't on this site yet. I'd more so like to comment on that. At least this movie had more of a conclusion. I wish, however, that Miss Panabaker would have been in the sequel. There was nothing at all wrong with the new actress, but I would have rather seen the original actress play the part. I'd also like to know who played the new Sarah, and also I'd like to know who played the devilishly handsome Gabe. I don't think that I've ever seen either one of them before. Gail and Grant really pull off the chemistry just like in the first one. I definitely enjoyed the sequel more.

I enjoyed this movie though did not quite find the whole thing that believable. I shall admit upfront that I'm not a single parent, a mom, or a woman for that matter, so I'm not expert on these matters. All the same, I think if someone actually chose to have a baby in the circumstances of this film, it would be a tad bit more difficult. And, it was convenient how the father of the baby disappeared around half way through the film. The film definitely had shades of Lifetime utopia.

Still, it was a good film on various levels. Gail O'Grady was very good as the lead, a single working mother (paralegal, going to law school, which I'd hope I could manage as she could!) of a teenager, who meets someone and enjoys the sexual side of the relationship. And, then, suddenly she becomes pregnant. The matter is complicated by an earlier miscarriage. The result, as noted, seemed a bit too good to be true, but the issues were dealt with in a pretty good fashion. O'Grady's skills as an actress made the film.

She also has to deal with her daughter, who is starting to develop sexual feelings of her own, and feels pressure to have sex. This is a quite real life issue, though it was handled a bit too smoothly here (the boy who turns out to be a jerk, predictable, though the ultimate result of her relationship with her friend has a nice twist to it). There is a good scene early on where the daughter examines her sexuality, one that must have made some moms sweat given the potential of the Internet. The daughter was played pretty well by the young actress here.

The film had some predictable "Lifetime touches," but seriously dealt with the issues, and Gail O'Grady was fine in the lead role. Worth catching the next time it's on Lifetime.