Dirty Little Secret

There are just so many problems with this movie! I've always liked Melissa Joan Hart so I thought I'd watch. It was mediocre at best. They barely scratched the surface yet didn't go completely over the top until the end like a lot of these Lifetime movies do. It was about a teenage girl who is embarrassed by her mother who appears to have it all together at work as an intelligent hard working nurse until you see their house and the mom is a hoarder. As it turns out, she was a complete neat freak before the father left because of it and now she's gone the other direction. There are also 2 older siblings that have moved out and don't come around much. Well, in the end this takes a VERY DARK, DISTURBED AND UNDESERVED turn. And I'm saying this about a Lifetime movie mind you!! This is not the way you treat people with mental illness!! I wouldn't recommend this film on that alone.

Shy high school student Lucy (Lizzie Boys) tries to keep to herself. She has one friend and never invites her home. There's a reason. Her highly-skilled nurse and functioning mother Joanna (Melissa Joan Hart) is actually a hoarder. She's always afraid of getting her mother in trouble.

It's Lifetime. It's Melissa Joan Hart. The story lacks drama. I've never considered a child's fear of children services although that would work better for a younger daughter. I don't know where the premise could go. For the drama, Lucy needs to be isolated. She shouldn't have a friend or even siblings. The story could unfold that she starts to open up and that's where the drama comes in. Lizzie looks like a prom queen and it doesn't fit. The last part could be dramatic but some of it seems laughable.

I love Melissa, so I had high hopes for this one. It wasn't terribly written or acted, and the storyline was unlike any other lifetime movie I've ever seen which is good. However, the last 30 minutes of this film are complete garbage. Such missed opportunities for redemption and healing. Just so, so sad and confusing.

"Dirty Little Secret" starts out good and effectively sets up the plot for how Hart's character, Joanna, became a hoarder, and the effect her disorder has on her children, particularly Lucy (Lizzie Boys). We see Lucy go on a path to discovery of what a normal functioning family looks like, and sees how a boy in her class has come to terms with his mom's recovery from alcoholism, and we develop hope that she will gain inner strength and feel empowered to lead her mother to admitting her problem and get her on the path to redemption. And the storyline does get us to the point where Lucy confronts her mother, and Joanna does show signs of realizing her problem. The viewer has hope that Joanna will be redeemed and Lizzie will prove mature beyond her years.

Then it all goes downhill from there. Everything gets weird and nonsensical. I won't give away the details, but the last 30 minutes was bizarre.

I think the Lifetime network should have a contest of its viewers to see who can write a better ending to this otherwise pretty good movie.

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.