Guilty at 17

Seventeen-year-old Erin Sanders (as Traci Scott) corroborates a classmate's story about being sexually molested by an otherwise beloved science teacher. To upset students and entertain viewers, he is arrested at work. We quickly learn there's another side to the story. The presumed victim, pretty and popular blonde Chloe Rose (as Devon Cavanor), got a bad grade from Rob Stewart (as Gilbert "Gil" Adkins) and decided to get revenge. Heart-throbbing boyfriend Zack Peladeau (as Jay Allerson) helps Ms. Rose get even...

This "Lifetime" TV Movie is supposed to be based on a true story; that's somewhat believable, but this presentation struggles with credulity. The student liar suffers the most, as Ms. Sanders seems way too smart for her part. The writers' having an undercover teacher, red-haired Alex Paxton-Beesley (as June Gailey), enter the drama and attempt to uncover the truth helps keep the story interesting. Director Anthony Lefresne does good work with Ms. Paxton-Beesley in the classroom. She should have been the protagonist.

***** Guilty at 17 (7/20/14) Anthony Lefresne ~ Erin Sanders, Alex Paxton-Beesley, Chloe Rose, Zack Peladeau

This was not too bad a movie, the story is good and I cared what would happen, Some good acting by most of the cast.

Guilty at 17 was carried by one of the movie channels and aired on July 6 when I caught it, happening to be awake when otherwise I'd normally be in bed.

The film gets right to the point: with allegations of sexual abuse. The premise is perfect for a sizzling tennis match with conflicting testimonies, hidden agendas, teenage angst under peer pressure and undercover investigative work to search for the truth. However, bad script writing then takes over and we're left with a half-hearted badminton match between two key personalities, the heroine and the villainess. Both appear hamstrung by some ludicrous moments in the script that render the film almost comical.

As a viewer, I thought June Gailey's grief simply too mechanical at the teacher's suicide. Her moment of denial at his death is fleeting. Her anger was non-existent. Her recollection of happier times with him is blatantly absent. She moves straight to the final stage of bereavement by token acceptance. The audience is left bewildered at her decision to then turn around and investigate this suicide as suspicious. Overall, Alex Paxton-Beesly starts with tremendous potential since she's the "living" victim of a dastardly deed but the directors squander this capital by canning her emotional expression.

Chloe Rose plays the bad girl Devon Cavanor and I think she does a terrific job being the pathological schemer eventually caught up in her own game. The scenes of conflict between June and Devon are there in theory but are simply not exploited.

The audience expects a dramatic flare up between the two women in the classic sense: "good" girl against "bad" girl. Alas, there's no shouting or screaming, pulling of hair, glass shattering, dishes smashing and tables tumbling. There's no passion at all! It might be corny but even some little action between the heroine and the villain, a little hot, intense girl on girl fight scene, for example, would bump up the entertainment value, providing some dramatic relief to the monotony of poor script.

Finally, many of the personalities portrayed appear "out of character" with their real person seeming to take over at times, leaving one wondering whether we're still in the movie or in a reality TV series.

Overall the film needs some serious editing and a major script overhaul but that's probably not to be expected from its Canadian producers.

This movie made me so emotional and I'm pretty sure it was because of the great acting from the lead young lady Traci as well as the teacher, Mr. Adkins. The teacher had such a gentle and kind demeanor and even though he was being accused of something that we know for a fact he did not do, he didn't overact or become livid or unlikeable. His character was very sweet and it was just so sad what happened to him. The guilt was eating at Traci so much and I think she did a great job as an actress at balancing out her emotions. The villain just set forth such a terrible chain of events that affected so many people. I wanted to see someone slap her right across the face.

Anyway, this movie was pretty well balanced and well acted all the way around. Sure the story has been done before but isn't every story told multiple ways? There's only so much to make a LT movie about so here's another perspective to watch. Very watchable.

There's no mystery to unravel here - we know from the beginning that a spoiled brat concocts false sexual assault allegations against her science teacher, and she has her friend falsely act as a witness.

But whatever, we can't expect artistic conventions from a Lifetime movie. I liked seeing Erin Sanders, who played Quinn on Zoey 101. She's a natural actress here, but was wasted here with this dreadful script.

My gripe is that Traci has zero incentive to lie about the assault, plus she's not being blackmailed by Devon. If there were actual plot twists or an explanation to how Jay carried out his misdeeds, this may have kept my interest going. But it was a soap opera.