Not as gripping as it could have been but the essence of Jodi Picoult's story is intact. An interesting aspect of the novel was the graphic novel intersecting each chapter, which explores the father's psyche. His conflicted feelings for wife and daughter are revealed vicariously through his illustrations and story-telling. His wife's obsession with Dante's Inferno, the class she teaches at university, becomes his obsession, too, since he explores the same theme through his comic book characters. Had this been a big budget film with animation telling this aspect of the story, it would have been visually intriguing! The father's sensitivity and artistic bent is an essential part of the central conflict and does not come across convincingly in this TV movie. On a superficial level, this film tells a story of a family in trauma, but the actors are not compelling enough to ring true. Any husband and wife who have struggled with raising a teenage child will probably agree this is a weak portrayal...but a young audience might identify with the teen angst of Trixie, the troubled young victim.
