Her Last Chance

This movie has good writing, a good plot, but the casting needs improvement.

Everything about "Her Last Chance" is good except for the acting. Don't get me wrong. I love Kellie Martin. She is an amazing actress and is by far one of my favorite actresses. But why would she even attempt at playing a role she is clearly not up to doing? In the past, Kellie has played roles where she is the sweet innocent school girl. (Somebody had mentioned this before.) Alex Saxon, the out-of-control drug addict teen that is sent to rehab doesn't strike me as the character to be played by Kellie Martin. At times she lets herself go and gets caught up in the drug involvement, but she just can't pull it off. The rest of the cast does a terrible job. Where did they find these actors? The only actress/character that I found believable was Patti Lupone who played Alex's mother. The rest could be re-casted without a second thought.

"Her Last Chance" was shown a couple of years ago on NBC and then on Lifetime a while back. I'm really surprised that NBC even agreed to air on their station. (You know how NBC is with their censorship.) Anyway, the filming and shots of the drug usage is really nice because it shows what goes on between teenagers and drugs.

It's a simple movie that has a twist in it to where it makes it interesting. Sort of like a mystery. For an easy-to-follow movie with a good ending, watch this movie. Don't expect too much from the acting department. To see what Kellie Martin is really capable of doing, watch ANY of her other films.

Kellie Martin gives yet another over the top and clichéd performance as the drug addict teen. This, however is compensated for by her support cast. The average script is played wonderfully by most of the young actors and a catchy soundtrack helps make this movie memorable. Brandis steals the show as the lovable bad-guy who meets an untimely end and the last minute twist is interesting to say the least.

I liked this movie. Kellie Martin was believable in the lead role, and the portrayal of her struggles with peer pressure was also credible.

I found the plot development about the death of the obnoxious boyfriend (he WAS a stupid, selfish jerk!) and subsequent criminal investigation to be unnecessary and a distraction from the main point of the movie, which was how difficult it is to get and stay sober in high school, while all of your peers continue to drink and use drugs. However, even with this distraction, I felt that this was a good movie.

Having followed the career of Miss Martin for quite some time I was very disappointed that she agreed to play in this movie. I love the work of Miss Martin: she is a great actress and I am pleased to see her in E.R. but this movie was a complete catastrophe. During the complete running time of the movie I was always distracted by the fact that she was not the girl to play this part i.c. opposite of J. Brandis there couldn't have been a greater difference between two people: she was playing the quite gentle shy girl, he was the know-it/seen it all kind of guy who is living from his parents money and has yet to prove that he can earn his income independently! She was on drugs!!! Come on! I am sorry to say that Miss Martin was totally miscast! Being the producer on this show answers a lot! The other thing that annoyed me very much was the overweight of Miss Martin: I even didn't recognize her at the beginning of the film due to her very round face!

I guess I saw this movie in 1996 because I know it was when it first aired on NBC. I remember it was a great TV movie. I have always looked for it and tried to find out the name. While at school, I came across IMDB.com and I knew Jonathan Brandis was in it cuz I love him. And once I saw Kellie Martin was in it I remembered almost all of the movie. I thought it was an awesome movie. Two of my favorite actors (Martin and Brandis), what more could you ask for?