Mother Knows Best

So I caught this movie today on Lifetime, on a rainy Saturday morning. For once, I'm grateful for the bad weather! When I saw the title "Mother Knows Best", with Joanna Kerns no less, I figured it would be some Lifetime movie about a mother taking off her apron and having to deal with obnoxious bratty children. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

Celeste Cooper is my idol! Joanna Kerns did an excellent job shedding her "everywoman" image. I was laughing out loud as soon as she placed the ad in her daughter's name. Grant Show and Christine Elise have some chemistry but I found their characters to be stale. Kerns steals the show here, that's for sure! It's funny how the only Lifetime movies that I like are always on at 11am on Saturdays. And those are the Lifetime movies that still run on the channel.

I loved this movie. It was extremely entertaining, and featured an excellent cast. Joanna Kerns was wicked as Celeste, and Christine Elise was also great as the innocent daughter. If you don't know the plot of this story, here it is.

Joanna Kerns plays Celeste, a rich woman who feels that it's time for her daughter to have a serious relationship. So she places a personal ad in the paper. When a guy, played by Grant Shaw of "Melrose Place", answers the ad, it's love at first sight for him and the daughter, played by Christine Elise. But mother isn't impressed with daughter's new boyfriend, because he is a mechanic, and not a lawyer or a doctor. So she arranges for him to be murdered!

A Great little thriller. I Highly recommend it.

My rating: 8/10

A not too bad Lifetime movie about a snooty, upper class mother who doesn't think her son in law is good enough for her little girl, so naturally, she decides to correct the situation by "getting rid" of him. Joanna Kerns was really good as Celeste, prancing along with a smile on her face as she pulled all her stunts to break up the marriage.

Without giving away too much, one of my favorite exchanges in this movie was:

"So, you ever met a cop?

"No, I don't believe so"

"You have now!"

We open with the statement, "Although fictionalized, the following dramatization was inspired by actual events." The credits run over some forthcoming scenes, which seem to give away too much of the plot, but really make up for some lack of action during the early running (and give up nothing important). Until the drama picks up excitement, you can revel in the somewhat psychotic performance of perfect mother Joanna Kerns (as Celeste). A wealthy and socialite, Ms. Kerns has just won a "Woman of the Year" award for her charitable and charming good will. She worries about her desirable daughter's lack of manly attention, and places a "personal ad" for pretty blonde Christine Elise (as Laurel Cooper)...

At first Ms. Elise thinks her mother's idea will match her up with a "serial killer," but she goes out on a blind date with the respondent anyway. Elise is thrilled when the man turns out to be handsome entrepreneur Grant Show (as Ted Rogers). Coincidently, Mr. Show reveals his mother encouraged him to answer the personal ad. Elise and Show hit romance head on, and plan to marry. But, mother Kerns has decided Show is unfit for her daughter. He has his own business, but is an automobile mechanic. So, Kerns decides she must break up the young couple, by hook or by crook...

If this really happened, as revealed in the opening and closing, more than a little dramatic license must have been taken. It doesn't matter as this is one of the most fun (and suspenseful) TV movies from the "Lifetime" production team. Everyone is as perfect as Kerns' décor, with hired gunman Sherman Augustus (as Dick Cutler) and soundtrack contributor Patrick Williams standing out. Especially stick with it for Kerns' indignant comeuppance.

******* Mother Knows Best (4/12/97) Larry Shaw ~ Joanna Kerns, Christine Elise, Grant Show, Sherman Augustus

This is a surprisingly okay film that I caught on Lifetime - okay and Lifetime with regard to movies is usually a contradiction in terms, but not this time. Well-cast and directed with a light touch by Larry Shaw, as well as a halfway decent script, "Mother Knows Best" is both entertaining and absorbing.

Based on a true story, the beautiful and talented Joanna Kerns plays Celeste Cooper, a socialite who doesn't like her daughter's husband. He's an auto mechanic instead of a doctor. So she hires someone to kill him. "I want him shot in the head," she instructs the hit-man.

Kerns really elevates this film with her glamor and no-nonsense line deliveries. She approaches the hit as if she's arranging for a catering job. Christine Elise is her daughter and Grant Show her husband, and both are appealing. David Spielberg is Celeste's henpecked husband. Watching his daughter from afar on her wedding day, he cries and says to Celeste, "She reminds me of you the day we were married." "Shut up, George," his wife says.

Good.