Shameful Secrets

This played on Lifetime Television under the title "Going Underground," which intrigued me. There are women who go underground, changing their identities and living anonymous lives to hide themselves and their children from abusive husbands. But this never lived up to it. The heroine didn't "go underground" until the last 15 minutes of the film, and it was shown in quick stills. What did they show, then? A completely ordinary and predictable drama with every Battered Woman chicle in the book. Talk about false advertising! I felt so cheated, I wanted to batter the people who made this, especially the one who chose the title. The story and its ending will surprise only those who have never watched Lifetime Television before.

I suspect that the people who dislike the film may struggle with emotional issues. This film was moving, Joanne and Matthew were extremely convincing, and the young boy who played the son has to be one of the best child actors I've ever seen. The battered woman and child story is one that needs to be told over and over again so that people can understand how traumatic and horrific abuse is. This story was extremely effective, and a lifetime original.. lifetime used to make movies like this, and I wish they would move back to these types of stories, gripping, moving, and validating. This was a heart-wrenching, beautiful movie.

Not sure why the hate. Yikes. Stumbled upon this on Tubi since they have the old classic lifetime movies. Lifetime movies in the 80s and 90s were the best ones, and this one was no exception. Exceptional acting from Joanna kerns and the child who played her son Jason. People can say that this is another "typical lifetime movie" but to me, thats ok. This story should be told over and over until people realize what women go through. Tim Matheson always plays the bad guy, being type-cast in almost everything, so he did well here. It was a great story of abuse running in families from generation to generation and the struggle women face trying to leave, since most people think its so easy. A lot of new laws have been enacted in the last couple decades but battered women and children were through the roof during the time of this movie. If you like typical lifetime movies, you'll like this one as well.

Abusive, black-hearted husband is the bad guy, and the loving mother is wronged by the unfeeling court system. However, AMAZING performance by Justin Isfeld as Jason, the son. Truly a wonderful performance for a child actor so young.

...so he walked away before the end and the movie doesn't really conclude properly after dragging more than an hour and a half with the same issue. The pianist, unfortunately, stayed all along and felt he had to play through every sing scene for drama purpose. Despite good acting all around, this movie is almost as painful to go through as the issue it is supposed to depict.