Terror in the Family

At first, 'Terror in the Family' seems like just another familiar tale of a 'normal' American family dealing with a violent teenager.

As the story progresses, however, you eventually realize that the violently rebellious daughter (Hillary Swank) may be the only member of this family that ISN'T totally bonkers. Mom's an alcoholic, dear ol' dad (who spends most of his time making wooden salad bowls) never wanted kids in the first place, younger brother Adam is a closet drunk, and grandma makes Joan Crawford look like mother of the year.

This family is so dysfunctional that you have to wonder how they ever stayed together long enough to have teenage kids! As the non-stop bickering reaches a fever pitch in the final hour, it's hard not to laugh out loud.

If this were a black comedy, it might work. But as a drama, it falls apart rather quickly. Too bad, since the cast was good enough to deliver much more.

This was an intense film from Lifetime Network, Hilary Swank is a teenage girl who wants her freedom from her parents and wants to be with her boyfriend,, well her parents are going to put a stop to this, but problem is this spoiled brat is violent and she goes after her dad by slamming a door on his arm,, fighting with her mother,, classic tale of teenage girl rebelling but goes way to far in this movie I felt,, the mother escapes by drinking whine during the day,, the husband is busy in the basement doing woodworking,, and the son is busy sipping vodka before bed,, this movie is kinda hard to watch,, in part because I had a teenage step daughter that was violent as she got older, but thank goodness not to the point in the movie , but close enough. interesting watch,,, Dan Lauria was good, and Jo Anna Kerns was great and stole the show for me.

Hilary Swank is obviously a very good actress, but her casting here presents a problem: as a rebellious suburban teen with an anger management problem, Swank isn't too convincing as a malicious liar and conniver. This pedantic TV-made drama hopes to show how some parents attempt to substitute personal problems or an estranged marriage by turning their kids into pals (instead of helping them become responsible people). It has many intense moments of family conflict, yet Swank is too clean-cut, too brainy and well-wrought as a person to match up with this mercurial character. As her parents, Joanna Kerns and Dan Lauria have some very fine scenes, but Kerns (playing an alcoholic) is given too many not-so-subtle "sipping her wine" close-ups, and this particular needy mom (whose own mother was abusive–-these patterns repeat!) isn't quite convincing either: she seems to go downhill awfully fast (after the obligatory 'fixing dinner' scenes) and her background and relationship with her sister is left too vague. The melodramatic music score is obtrusive and obnoxious, underlining every emotion to the nth-degree and signaling the traumas far in advance. However, for a television film the narrative is tight and, after a poor opening (including a tatty flashback frame, the kind that never works), the movie improves and does try to solve its dilemmas carefully without too much hand-holding.

I was curious about this as an early credit for Hillary Swank, and if I were she and someone mentioned this movie in my presence I'd probably be thinking, "I'm a big movie star now, I've won two Academy Awards, I should be allowed to forget credits like that." Truth be told, though, it's a better than average Lifetime movie and Swank acquits herself marvelously in it as the rebellious teenage girl whose violent relations with her family open a lot of old wounds going back three generations. This has some of the usual Lifetime weaknesses — melodramatic plot construction, an overly reverential attitude towards psychotherapy, sappy piano-and-strings background music (they must have a library of millions of these records) and a limp excuse for punk rock allegedly performed by Garrett's band, as well as the obligatory soft-core porn scene — but it's also solidly acted by a tight ensemble cast, it's all too believable despite the melodramatics, and Gregory Goodell has a visual sense far ahead of most of the Lifetime directors.

The subject matter is not just about a violent teen (Hillary Swank) but what got her that way. The title is misleading, sounds more like a serial killer type movie.

Kerns does well, portraying a housewife with a distant husband, drinking too much (as it turns out her mother, portrayed by Nan Martin, liked using physical force to keep the kids in line). Dan Lauria is the father, who prefers woodworking in the basement to avoid addressing the issues. There was also a similar film on Lifetime with Delta Burke and Ryan Merriman: "Child of Rage"; it presented this problem in a clearer light- and the audience learns that teen violence against parents is not unusual. There are also many different causes, and it does not happen in a vacuum.

This movie has Swank as the root of the problem, until the very end where it is clear her mother (Kerns) was raised by an abusive mother. This issue should have been developed more. Also the faltering marriage issue was never addressed; Kathleen Wilhoite is Kern's sister, who has some insight about the problem, and is all but ignored throughout the film. The other adults who contribute to the problem do not admit it until the last five minutes of the film, where everyone except the abusive grandma goes to therapy.

Worth a shot if you at least have an interest in what causes teens to act out, and why alcoholism exists.