Rivals

This movie was on the TV last night. At first I only wanted to watch because Dawson's mom (Dawson's Creek) plays Laurie's mom, but it proved to be a decent show. All through the movie, I kept thinking: Man, this really happened? No way. It says "True Story" ... Nahh! Couldn't be. Oh, it is then? It's disgusting! If we have to set aside the suspected criminal's human rights to further investigate the problem, let's do it. What happened to Laurie really could have been avoided, the laws just aren't tough enough. It's far worse finding out the hard way that you've had the criminal sitting in the police station before her deed was done and the police couldn't do a thing about it because all you have for evidence is your word over hers. Are there really such horrible people in this World?

This is a kind of movie I've seen several times before. The movie starts with one of the final scenes, and you are about 95% sure what will eventually happen to Laurie. But I really enjoyed it. Mostly because of Marne Patterson as Michelle. She was *awful*. She was so bad. One of the worst female characters I have ever seen on TV. And she did it extremely well. At least *I* was convinced she was the psycho she turned out to be.

Read that someone said that *too much* was changed from the original story. Too bad. Still worth watching though, indeed...

Classing this movie is difficult,it's bizarre,frightening and tragic.The fact that it was based on a true story got me watching and all the way till the end I was thinking about how unbelievably terrible this tragedy must have been,especially for the real Hazel Show.But my mind wasn't on much else,the scenes were scrappily put together,the script lacking and Finnigan....well let's just say she could have played the part better.It wasn't entirely bad though,Lambert(Patterson) was truly loathing and psychotic,and there were other notable performances namely that of Humes,Hunt and Vannicola.It was one of those movies that you HAVE to watch till the end,but once you've watched it you think it could have been done better.

Based on a true story, popular and volatile Michelle Lambert (Marnette Patterson) befriends shy Laurie Show (Jennifer Finnigan). One night, Michelle's boyfriend Butch Yunkin (Rel Hunt) rapes Laurie. Michelle is pregnant by Butch and starts harassing Laurie.

Marnette is good as a jealous psychopath. Jennifer Finnigan is good at playing fragile girls, but she's too mature for the part. She needs to be younger and weaker. She really needs to play up the victim role.

The other problem is the quality of the production. This is strictly movie of the week quality. The directions and the style have nothing behind it. The best thing in the movie are the two harrowing performances, but it just couldn't elevate the movie from its melodramatic roots.

The problem with this TV-movie, to paraphrase Dr. Johnson, is not that it is done so badly, but that it is done at all. Years ago a movie about the type of crime depicted here might have been unique and intriguing. Sadly for both society at large and the TV viewing public, it's all too commonplace now. There have been at least a dozen movies on this same subject. This film may be worse than some and better than others, but it does nothing to distinguish itself from the pack. After seeing so many similar flicks, some stock characters emerge. Of these, the terrorized victim and her mother aren't drawn too badly, but the closet psycho-homecoming queen is not as compelling as that character should be, in this viewer's opinion. And her oafish boyfriend is so shallow that he's a major irritation every time he's onscreen.

There are no laughable performances here, and the direction is at least competent, if not distinguished. Even Jennifer Salt's script is not a bad one, but she fails to convince us why we should want to watch these unpleasant characters. If you think you've seen one too many stalker movies, this certainly isn't the one that's going to change your mind.