Please Don't Hit Me, Mom

This movie, which I believe was originally an afterschool special, concerns a family dealing with the reality of child abuse. Patty Duke is a single mother dealing with the difficulties of raising two sons alone in a new community. She hires teen Nancy McKeon to babysit her youngest son (Sean Astin in his first film appearance). Through the course of the movie, as McKeon gets to know her young charge, she realizes that he is, in fact, being physically abused by his mother. Duke, as usual, turns in a great performance as the conflicted mother, struggling to control the rage that prompts the abuse and feeling guilty over the results. While it may have seemed cutting edge 20 years ago, the film comes across now as a bombastic public service announcement, watering down the complexities of the nature of abuse presumably to make the situation understandable to kids and teens. It might be shown somewhere like the LIFETIME network, which seems to have a soft spot for Patty Duke TV movies.

The main reason why I saw PLEASE DON'T HIT ME MOM it's because is Sean Astin's first movie he ever did (even before THE GOONIES) but it's both great and sad to watch at the same time.

Barbara Reynolds (Patty Duke) is a single mother that deals everyday with her two sons, teen Michael (Lance Guest) and child Brian (Astin). One day Barbara hires Nancy Parks for babysitting Brian and she notices that he has various bruises, and when she asks him what happened, Brian spills the beans: he has all those bruises because his mother has a penchant of beating him even for the sake of doing it. So Nancy does her best for spending more time with Brian and eventually, with the help of Michael, leave their household and have her mother arrested by social services.

I liked all the performances, especially that of Astin (yes, he was 9 years old but he already was capable of good stuff unaware of what was in store for him) as a young child that has to suffer all the abuses until the babysitter notices. At the same time tho, it made me feel sad because it reminded me of when I was beaten when I was a child (and that certainly had some bad side effects on my growth) only because I didn't fit in with the others or for some mishaps I done during my childhood (well, everyone does them). And I really appreciated the ending because that's what Barbara deserved.

Not to be missed since it's also available on Youtube but it's best if you have some Kleenex near for the sad moments.