Inocencia rota

Based loosely on the life story of porn superstar Shauna Grant/Colleen Applegate. For a made for TV movie, it wasn't bad. For those really interested in Shauna Grant's decline to eventual suicide this movie treats the matter very superficially. Although accurate in its simplicity, it tends to trivialize the adult business; a business which frankly needs no trivialization. Rumor had it that Shauna Grants family weren't too pleased about the movie.......despite the fact that they co-operated and were compensated by the production company. The movie portrayed them as real straightlaced simpletons, incapable or unwilling to deal with anything outside their "small town" existence. The plot continually amplified this and we were left to conclude that this lack of unconditional love and understanding was the main reason for Shauna's suicide. Jonna Lee, which was "very watchable" throughout, does a good job of portraying Grant. All in all, I would rate it a 3*** out of 5.

This 1988 made for t.v. movie was based on the life and ultimate suicide of Colleen Applegate, a young woman from Minnesota who went to Hollywood at the age of 18 with dreams of stardom, became a porn star under the name of "Shauna Grant" and then returned to her hometown two years later to be buried, a tragic suicide at the age of 20.

This movie is a fictionalized account of her life and death although apparently her parents did cooperate in the making of this film.

Jonna Lee portrays "Pauline Anderson", the fictionalized version of Colleen. She overacts at times, but otherwise does a competent job of portraying the innocence and then gradual freefall of a young girl who gets ensnared into the adult entertainment industry through cocaine and big money. Melinda Dillon portrays her mother, and does a good job of conveying her character's devastation and shame at her daughter's choice of career, and eventual destruction.

I think what gave this movie more poignancy to me was the fact that it was based on a true story, not just some hack writer's imagination working overtime. How many thousands of young girls go to Hollywood each year with the hopes of breaking into the movies, only to fall into porn, with devastating results? It's a chilling thought, and Colleen's suicide is a reminder of this.

This is a movie that could have been tawdry and exploitative, and indeed, I recall reading that the parents of Colleen Applegate (whose life this is loosely based on) were displeased with it, saying it made the pornographers look like they were just running a business and Colleen got into trouble on her own. It's not quite that simple in the movie.

The acting is good all around. Jonna Lee is convincing in all three wildly different stages of the Colleen character's (here she's called Pauleen) story: naive virgin, confident nude model, and decimated, has-been, weary porn star. Her hysterical, desperate tirade at the end is particularly noteworthy; despite the many stupid decisions she's made, in the end, you feel for her. She was really just a kid, after all.

I keep coming back to this film, some 17 years after I first saw it, for the script, the cast, the acting and even the background music. This Lorimar TV flick must have been ahead of its time in 1988, as the story of 17-year-old Pauleen Anderson, who, wanting to grow up faster than she knows how, leaves home and becomes in turn a centerfold, a porn star, a cocaine abuser and finally a suicide when things go wrong. I think the producers and writers try to take aim at the pornography industry for the sleazy business it is, but this girl's impatience with life and desire to "have it all" the fast and easy way seem just as much to blame for what happened to her. Jonna Lee is convincing in every way as a natural beauty who is not mature enough to handle what she's gotten herself into. Melinda Dillon is memorable as the disapproving mother who understands neither her daughter's restlessness nor how the high-paying porno business would prove as addictive as cocaine to a young girl with nothing to sell but her looks. John Pleshette is also good as the older man who's finally found the centerfold girlfriend he's wanted all his life, only to lose her to his own tragic flaw - being a cocaine dealer headed for prison. No matter how many times I see this film I'm moved by the way it unfolds relentlessly toward its inevitable tragic end. Even the touching opening and closing theme music strikes home. Knowing that this fictionalized account mirrors the life and death of real-life porn star Colleen Applegate only makes it more compelling.

I agree with the comments above about this film. Despite the flat TV movie style presentaion, "Shattered Innocence" kept my attention until the tragic conclusion. What I liked about the movie's approach was that it did not condem the obvious culprit, the porn industry, for the downfall and demise of Pauleen Anderson. Pauleen chose to enter the adult film world and succumbed to cocaine addiction and ultimately faced the horrible consequences. TV movies have a lack of fluidity of camerawork and lack of showmanship as is the case with "Shattered Innocence". In the light of porn-glamourizing films such as "Boogie Nights", this tepidness accentuates the intent of "Shattered Innocence". In "Shattered Innocence" entry, escape from and re-entry into the porn business leads to tragic, lonely, and hurtful existence. I suspect the downfall of Pauleen Anderson is much closer to what happens to real-life porn actors than the glamourous lives of the characters in "Boogie Nights" (which by the way, ended with a bizzare, 'happy' conclusion for all).