A Friend's Betrayal

"A Friend's Betrayal" is an insightful, thought-provoking and interesting movie on a topic that has not been extensively dealt with in the entertainment industry –with a few notable exceptions. It was much more balanced, non-judgmental and rational than it could have been and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The performances in the movie are good. Sharon Lawrence provides an excellent portrayal of the elder woman and gives her character a unique amount of personality, depth and insight which allows the viewer to feel empathy and perhaps in some cases some sympathy for her point of view and the emotions she is going through. She is also exceedingly beautiful and vivacious and that also gives a realistic dimension to this role. Brian Austin Green is also excellent in the role of Paul –he gives the character enough passion, sensitivity and realism to make you also relate and identify with the feelings and emotions that he is experiencing. The supporting cast is also excellent –with John Getz, Ashleigh Aston Moore and Katie Wright all portraying their characters exceptionally and with perfection. The only disappointing character in my opinion was the character of Paul's mother –somehow her character seemed a bit too flat and one-dimensional. Perhaps this was biased by the fact that I didn't like her character but I still think she could have been handled better The script and dialogue in this movie flow well and avoids the trap evident in a considerable number of telemovies of becoming too clichéd or unrealistic. The issues involved in the movie are discussed and treated in a professional way and the consequences of the actions of all the characters involved are evaluated thoughtfully. I actually sympathized with the teenager and Sharon Lawrence's character here –being attracted to older woman myself –but the movie was wonderful at allowing me to see the other side of the picture. That's what I enjoyed so much about this movie –it didn't seek to pass judgment or editorialize about the actions of the main characters. It just let the story unfold quite close to the way that it probably would have in real life.

I was disappointed with the ending of this film –which I won't reveal-but, like an early reviewer here, I agree that many would see it as a logical conclusion. I'm actually going to give this 9/10 –I found this enjoyable, entertaining and intriguing to watch and it totally exceeded my expectations

Movie is called Stolen youth, so why give it a different name? It's too confusing. When I did a search here (IMDB), it wasn't coming up. It is titled a friends betrayal or similar!

Anyway, for an old movie it was ok. Bit slow

This film recently aired on Lifetime, and it saddens me to see the same old woman vs. woman clichéd combat repeated on a network purportedly catering to women. That is, to the woman who follows all of society's stereotypes. Lawrence's character is demonized for corrupting the young man (when it is quite clear that he, not her, is the aggressor) and for incidents stemming, in fact, from the ranting mother's actions. The film lost me almost entirely when during a long hysterical scene brandishing words like "child molester" and threats to call the police it turned out that the fellow was 18 - an age legal for sexual activity in every state in the Union, then as now! The ending is predictable and caters to Moral "Majority" expectations.

The film had its moments, the cinematography was fine and the love scenes torrid, but you don't sit through two hours of film to see ten good minutes if you have any sense.

Rating: 4/10

First case and point, I like to point out, is that this between them is not love. People confuse love with lust to often but what gets me is people are saying and I quote "that the mother is mean,selfish". An the people don't people to key parts of the movie where they speak about the history between th older woman and Paul's mom let's recap. Paul's mom confronts Nina an revealed that she knew Nina and Paul's father had affair for years behind Paul's moms, Nina is shocked to find that her friend well ex friend had known all these years about her affair with her husband. Plus let's not forget Nina has affairs with married men all the time which is also revealed, which is the reason why she is a single older woman with no family or steady relationship because has affairs with married men in hopes they will leave their wives for her, which they never leave their wives or the wife has found out an it breaks up family still they don't be with her in the end. So she comes to town and is on the rebound after breaking up with her married ex boyfriend who like all the other men in her life refuses to leave his wife for her! How for ironic of this story! So heartbroken and upset she starts a sexual affair with best friend's teenage son who is 18yrs old. Once again This is not love it's lust! Why? Because not to long ago Paul was just telling his high school sweetheart Cindy that he loves her (sighs) wow so your telling that after only knowing Nina for a short time fell out of love with Cindy and in love with Nina bullshit, he didn't really love her either , what he was feeling was lust not love and just because you share common interests like same color or favorite book,poem etc. Dose not mean your meant to be together. Yes they share common interests but they have two different life experiences trust that wouldn't have lasted because she would have at one point when to be with a man more her age or if he would have given up school etc. He would have years later blamed her even hated for his life turned out or could have been. Trust me I know and learned the hard way when I was 19yrs an got in a relationship with a 35 year old man,we had a common interests and every thing to but what we were feeling was lust I realized that later on so been there,done that but it's a good movie predictable but good.

I liked this film, sure the ending was a bit on the predictable side but for a change it is nice to see that the lovers were a younger man and older woman.

So many movies made where much older man has younger female lover but the roles are seldom reversed, and if ever they never come off without making the woman "evil." On the whole I liked this movie.

Also the fact Sharon Lawrence was the lover is a beautiful woman, and a great actor to boot.