Maternal Instinct

Bad, bad, bad writing. Lack of continuity check and motivation. After the first few gaffes, it does get a little better, but not much.

Main character says one thing and does another, repeatedly, like, "I'll get the report to you before I leave," then "Let's go..." Short-term memory loss?

Some acting was fair to horrible. Some was good, but overall a mixed bag.

And the doctor not letting the daughter stay with the mom even though there was no immediate danger? I've known doctors like that, and they are a hazard to society. He was going to pull the plug, but the daughter showing up makes the mother stronger. Dumb!

This is exactly how you take a good idea and mangle it just enough to make it barely watchable. A better writer could have made it all so much better, even with the poorer acting.

If you can handle the opening sequence where a mother who is driving with her daughter stumbles upon a murder being committed, and the stupid mother decides not to slam on the gas pedal to get out of dodge, but instead thinks the best thing to do is jump into the backseat and cower/whimper along with her daughter only to (duh) get shot.... then this movie if for you.

Let's just say this mother has very little maternal instinct (or survival instinct).

I still gave it a shot, and so many implausible things happen, it became a chore to get through. The crybaby girl was hard to watch, her acting was pretty awful.

Some Lifetime movies are worth the watch, but not this one.

I fully understand you can't make much of a movie for $0.8M but I have seen better $50K movies. Acting performances sucks as does the story line. It's riddled with flaws that make it unrealistic. The only reason I give it the third star, is that I did manage to see it through to the end!

Laura Mennell is such a bad actress in this. And her character is creepy.

Seriously if someone kissed and caressed a young girl the way she did, they'd be on a register.

It was her character and her terrible portrayal that made this a bad movie.

The editing fails... so many bloopers added to make this film from being just bad to terrible .

A policewoman takes in a teenage witness and bonds with her during the investigation.

Being a fan of relationships like this, I was pretty excited for the film, but I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. The problem is that, for the most part, the kid lacks likable qualities and the relationship feels rushed, as the girl is an extreme crybaby who clings to the heroine from the very start. Perhaps this can be called realistic, but the creators forget to make it engaging. In other words, I need more reason to sympathize with a character than the mere fact that they've endured trauma, and I usually prefer to see a relationship develop in phases. A good example of what I'm describing can be found in the film adaptation of Iris Johansen's 'The Killing Game,' a somewhat similar tale which handled its characters and their bond in much better fashion.

The action and the conflict driving it are decent. High points include nice performances by Laura Mennell as the dedicated detective and Marcus Rosner as her teammate.