Dirty Little Secret

Melissa Joan Hart as Joanna and Lizzie Boys as her daughter, Lucy, both shine in this Lifetime movie about a woman who is essentially, a pack rat and will not part with anything. It gets so bad that she loses her husband and her 2 older children move out. Lucy and her mom keep her secret well guarded. Their house looks like a wall-to-wall garage sale. I never knew that this was actually a sickness, The movie has an unhappy ending, though. More like this!!!

This was really decent up until the last 20 min when it went completely off the rails. Missed opportunity for redemption and a better ending. Two stars for great acting by Melissa Joan Hart and Lizzie Boys but this was truly awful. No idea what the writers or producers were thinking here but it doesn't add up.

No spoilers here so please read on. Dirty Little Secret is about a mother and daughter living with a mother's illness that many people suffer from which is hoarding and compulsive purchasing of on line goods. Outside of their home Joanna (Melissa Joan Hart) lives a somewhat normal life at work and wishes to start dating as a single mom supporting one of her three daughters Lucy (Lizzie Boys) who remained at home after her husband and two (2) other daughters moved out of their home not wanting to tolerate her mothers hoarding any longer.

Joanna even meets a wonderful man but before the relationship can even get to first base Joanna quickly realizes that she cannot have anyone see what a mess her home has become so she breaks off this potentially loving relationship. Joanna's daughter Joy (Lizzie Boys) certainly realizes that her mother has a difficult yet incurable illness with her hoarding and non stop purchasing of on line orders. Joy is the most affected by her mothers illness which leaves her no choice but to continue to create white lies about her homelife to her friends and her school's guidance counsellor.

There is a natural magnetism that occurs between a parent and their children and flaws in a persons character whether they are physical or mental are regularly overlooked with the hope that their problem(s) will simply go away on their own. Such is not the case, certainly not in this made for TV film although who of us can really understand the family dynamics unless we lived it ourselves. I am eternally grateful that my own parents were stable hard working and loving parents and their biggest problem was their own children (including myself) leaving our bedrooms a bit messy.

So for those who did not like the film due to the strange ending (no spoiler here) please try and consider that there are real problems out there and when a film producer and director have approximately 90 minutes to share their story with us accept that there is a lot more to a families story that we are thankfully shared the misery of exploring.

I give the film a respectable 6 out of 10 IMDb rating.

It was an okay movie up to the point of Melissa Joan Hart's character being vilified, then left for dead. OCD Hoarding is a disease, not a death sentence. Would have appreciated a more compassionate portrayal of the compulsive hoarder than it was given. Hart overacted in her role, that perhaps she really didn't identify with in the first place.

It was an awful ending. For someone afflicted or affected by hoarding watching the film it is a wound to the heart to see how her family and those around her portrayed the character ie., as someone unworthy of being loved or treated with dignity rather than a piece of trash.

I watched this last night on one of the local tv channels. I know it is a two year old movie from Lifetime channel which I do not have.

The subject of OCD is very compelling to me personally as I have watched the hoarder shows from another channel. This is the first bona fide hoarding movie I have seen. I also like that this Lifetime movie was not about cheerleaders, or home invasions, or abductions, or jealous nannies, etc. I had been trying to wean myself off the Lifetime type I call them "suburban living environment" type movies. But when I saw this last night on Global tv, I thought I'll give it a watch for a little while to see how it goes and of course I ended up watching from the point (after I found it through channel surfing) til its end.

I think if the mother (Melissa Joan Hart who I agree with others who said she did a great job acting the part) had just had her puffer or inhaler either in a pocket or on a necklace around her neck could have reached for it easier and avoided passing out when she was I think really giving it an all out effort the last half hour to clean up her hoard.

I also wish that her daughter could have called 911 to get her mum help before it was too late. I do however understand why she lagged doing it (imagination running wild of possible future scenario of her hoarding being broadcast and so on). I am relieved that there are laws in place to prevent that sort of thing. This I was unaware of until I read that from another poster's review in here.

There is so much more I could say but I am too wordy as it is. I do agree with another poster that there should be a follow-up or a sequel to this. I have ocd troubles to a certain extent more along the line of neatness, cleaning, symmetry and so on like that. I hope my particular problem doesn't go opposite as this poor lady's did in this movie.