Every Mother's Worst Fear

After watching this predictable, made-for-TV film about technophobia and the internet I was puzzled about what message the movie intended to impart to its audience. Is the internet a bad ersatz form of communication, replacing familial bonds or is it a gateway to a better world? Do high-flying career women and divorces go hand in hand? Do children need their mothers at all times? What is the role of the father? This movie throws all these questions in the air as a hidden agenda, and refuses to answer any. Many questions are left unanswered: how will the daughter cope after her ordeal? Will the mother get her top job back? Will the family unit be reunited? By refusing to adopt any position, this movie is a failed exercise in sociological analysis - yes, that was not its intention, but why raise these issues and then abandon them?

Jordan Ladd proved a worthy actress in this enlightening made-for-TV drama, which sends a message that all teenagers should adhere; never trust internet chat-rooms.

It's a film that many parents might actually understand - the child, who is perhaps naive and a little too trusting, spending hours and hours on end on their computer, and one or both of the parents working full time and are never at home to check on what's going on. Every Mother's Worst Fear points this out quite thoroughly.

Admittedly, the story is a little clichéd, but you can't help but sympathise with Connie Hoagland (Cheryl Ladd) as she desperately tries to locate her daughter. It does work that a real-life mother and daughter were cast for such what is really a cat-and-mouse movie. It does point out that the internet is not always a good thing. 5/10

I definitely think this movie is worth watching.. and a good one to watch with your kids to help them realize that there are dangers on the internet. While not every person on the internet is a sicky looking for prey, they ARE out there!

While some of the chat scenes left a little to be desired, I think it summed it all up quite well.

Note: this movie is based on a true story (it stated something to that effect at the beginning of the movie)

This is a very good movie that follows a 16 year old girl who goes to meet someone from the net and he kidnaps her and he runs a sex site on the net and he uses girls he kidnaps and puts them on the net. the girls Mother is out trying to find her and eventually does and just has to get her away from the guy. this movie is very good, it shows why you should always be careful of people on the net. Also the mother and daughter in the movie are Mother and Daughter in real life. i don't know if this is based on a true story but it could be!

God this was just horrible! everything about it... the acting, the script, the characters... I just couldn't decide what was more laughable, the unbelievably dumb 16 year old, (yes some teens are innocent and gullible, but not to that level!!), the internet-geek who "never goes out of his house" and voluntarily gives a hell of a laptop to some woman he never met before, or the mom who didn't know anything about computers, but learned 'it all' in a couple of, umm, minutes? Not to mention Ted McGinley AKA Jefferson Darcy as the big bad scary hacker guy...

Other than that you just gotta love movies about comps and "the net" made by people who know absolutely nothing about it (except for various textbook quotes)... There were so many holes and misinformation in this movie I couldn't even begin writing about it...

But in any case, to all worried computer-illiterate parents: unless your teenage daughter suffers from major brain damage, you don't have anything to worry about... but if she does, disconnect the internet and let her watch TV instead... cheers :)