The Truth About Jane

Did these guys have microphones in the wall when I came out to my parents? This movie was so similar to my own coming out experience that it was downright creepy in places. Some of Stockard Channing's lines were almost exactly what my own mother said verbatim!

So, in my book, this movie gets a 15 out of 10 for realism because, hey, I lived it. What more can I say. It's like they made a movie of my coming out experience and Ellen Muth played me.

About the movie itself, the acting was great; the plot was well laid out and strong and the characters were wonderfully believable. This movie is a 100% must see for teenage lesbians and their parents.

Ellen Muth is a teen who comes out as a lesbian, and Stockard Channing and James Naughton are her parents in "The Truth About Jane," a Lifetime movie.

This was an excellent movie dealing with the shame and pain of being different, the realization of who you are, and the difficulty in telling your loved ones you're gay. Jane is terrified of losing her parents' love so she can't tell them the truth about her friendship with a lonely, unhappy girl, even after her parents are told they were spotted kissing. When she finally comes out, there is anger and denial at first.

The performances in this movie are excellent all around, as is Muth's voice-over of the girl telling her story. The emotions ring true. Unfortunately, it's all a little too pat and probably not the actual experience of many young people acknowledging their gayness. Jane's mom has a best friend (RuPaul) who is gay, and she also has a female teacher who admits that she is gay. So she has lots of support, and, since this is Lifetime, her parents come around.

Definitely worth seeing and discussing, and I'm sure the film would be helpful to anyone faced with this situation. But as we know from real life, acceptance often comes at a higher price.

First, you have to go into this knowing that it's a made for TV movie, and therefor can't go as deeply into the issues that a regular movie could. That said, it's a pretty good movie which mainly focuses on Jane's family. It was really interesting to see Jane's liberal, open-minded mother react negatively to the news that her daughter was gay. Jane's family made a descent from a strong, caring unit into a torn apart mess. This descent happens gradually and was pretty believable. Towards the end of the movie, when the situation is at it's worse, Jane's father asks her mother, "How did we get here?" Unlike many Lifetime movies, where the teenagers seem to go crazy for no good reason, it was easy to see where the family's problems stemmed from and why they were so plagued with drama. The movie isn't perfect by any means, but the acting is strong, the relationships are touching (especially between Jane and her father) and the resolutions are uplifting but more realistic than what you'd be used to seeing on TV movies. Some good performances by Jane's mother, (Stockard Channing), Jane's father, (James Naughton) and Jane herself (Ellen Muth). With an altered "TV movie scale," I'd give it 4/5 stars.

I recently taped this movie off of Lifetime and as I was watching it, I was amazed at home closely Jane's home and personal experiences reminded me of my own coming out. As I was watching the video, the story was so powerful and personal that I had to turn it off at times to take a moment. The acting in the movie was great. Stockard Channing, as always, proved to be a stunning actress with a stellar performance. The young actress who played Jane, Ellen Muth, proved herself with a hard emotionally demanding dramatic performance. I hope to see more from her in the future. Kelly Rowan, who played the teacher was beautiful as always. Her performance was great, but I agree with with other users that her character was always appearing on the scene at "the right time" a little too much. Overall, I thought the movie was great. A must see for friends and family of all homosexuals. Everyone for that matter. A wonderful Coming Out movie!

A dear friend had a very similar experience to Jane and I got a chance to be her Mrs. Walcott, and I can say this movie was great until the end. I suppose that all Lifetime movies have to have good sappy endings, but this one was a tad bit unrealistic. I liked seeing Ellen Muth in something that wasn't Dead Like Me (I love that show!), and of course, Stockard Channing is always brilliant, even if I did want to shake and shake her through the whole experience.

It's a difficult thing for gay and lesbian kids of religious or "proper" parents to come out. We hear stories about it all the time, about parents disowning them and writing them out of the will and brothers and sisters who won't talk to them for the rest of their lives. It's so sad and so devastating. Hopefully that's the message this movie will bring to the table - love your children (sisters/brothers/whatever) no matter who they choose to love.