Dangerous Child

This is an interesting movie starring Delta Burke, one of my favorites, and Ryan Merriman, who does an excellent job as a teenager who turns on his mother.

Burke is divorced from a verbally abusive and belittling man, and she has custody of their two children. The older boy becomes less and less able to cope with his emotions and begins to act violently against his mother.

He's jealous of a man she's seeing, he has anger issues over the divorce, and in his father, there's an excellent role model to blame his mother. She can't handle him so she covers for him by lying. This leads to a near fatality.

Merriman plays a boy who's obviously a good albeit extremely troubled kid, and Burke is excellent as a frustrated and helpless mother. It's an all too typical situation today, unfortunately.

The film handles the issues well, especially by pointing out that the boy's behavior was not learned overnight, and it won't go away instantly either. Fairly absorbing, and I always love seeing Delta.

I just have to agree with all of you - Ryan's play in the movie is just brilliant. All the rage and violence in one moment, and the regret and tears in the other, all very strong and pure. As a whole it is interesting to see how the story goes, but there isn't even the slightest shadow of impatience, because you just don't know what he'll do next. and the look, his eyes, filled with such hidden anger and even evil... just makes you shake...it's so real...

besides, you can almost feel the confusion that's happening in that boy's mind, just by the look on his face.

a great movie no less than 10 out of 10

Someone had better give Ryan Merriman a frickin' Golden Globe or something for his performance as Jack Cambridge. WOW!!! What a diverse and very powerful performance. This kid is an excellent actor, and it is way, way past time someone realizes this! You can feel the anger his character feels. Especially anyone that has been a 16 year old boy (Merriman is 18 in real life). Icicle are evident with every angry stare, or sneer he give to his mother (Delta Burke). I don't know if enough can be said about Ryan Merriman. His acting is such a powerhouse, he upstaged Delta in my opinion. He electrifies the screen with his presence, and could send a small animal running with that stare( chills)!!!! Unfortunately, this movie does play very formulaic to a made for tv movie. Especially one on Lifetime. Delta Burke does give a very emotion and excellent performance of a battered mother. Protecting her son from the world, knowing that he would be taken from her if it came out that he was the abuser. Very believeable! There is defintely no room for Miss Susan Sugarbaker here. One thing I really liked about the movie is how much Ryan and Delta look like mother and son. It was perfect casting. Set in Illionis, filmed in Canada, this movie is standard made for TV, but the performance by Delta and more so by Ryan make this movie more than it really is.

this film addresses an issue which we do not often hear about, when the child is the abuser. We do hear of elder abuse in the news, but only the most extreme cases. What is valuable about this movie is that it also encompasses the societal problems, what Delta Burke(the mother) may or may not have done to cause the problem, and the reasons why the behavior is occurring.

Vito Ruginis portrays the father, who is re-married and treats his son (well played by Ryan Merriman) as his friend/buddy. Many parenting issues are explored, such as when Burke covers up for her son when the police are at the door, after he has hit her, and she has fallen on the floor. There is also a disturbing scene where he abuses the family cat.

Delta Burke gives an excellent and touching performance as a divorced mother, struggling to raise two sons. She has no idea why Merriman has such uncontrollable rage, and initially thinks he is just in a phase that he will grow out of. There is also the fact that she has no support or help from the ex-husband and father (Ruginis) who has the attitude "boys will be boys".

The point of this film is to show that behavior occurs for a reason. When Burke attends therapy, she realizes that she has allowed her ex-husband to verbally abuse her, and the son may have picked up on this attitude. She also realizes that her ex-husband's behavior has negatively influenced her son.

While there are never easy answers, this film has at least three different perspectives: the mother,trying to do the right thing; the son, who is angry and does not know why; and his father, who is in complete denial. Highly recommended. 9/10.

The film is exactly what the synopsis says, "mother is accused of abusing her children, when in reality her son is the abuser." Of the 90 minutes of the films runtime, 80 of them is just various scenes of the oldest son acting out, then being abusive towards his mother.

Since the movie spent all of it's time (and budget I assume) on mentioned above, the ending is rushed and lackluster. The movie tries to fit some emotional scenes in here, one's that if they actually had time would've made their mark, but they fall flat. The very ending scene skips six months ahead without telling the viewer and, while cute, really makes you go "that's it??"

You'll save yourself the time if you just read the synopsis paragraph.