The Accident: A Moment of Truth Movie

well-written and effective, this LMN addition is worth a view, especially by any teens and parents concerned about drinking and driving. The message: it only takes one mistake to destroy a life. Many lives are affected, not just the victim, his/her family, but EVERYONE.

Kate and Lizzie (well-portrayed by Deanna Milligan and Bonnie Root) are celebrating high school graduation with their friend Janie.

At first it seems harmless, socializing, having a few drinks, they have their freedom and can go out and party. In one scene they are pulled over by a cop, were drunk, but get away with it. They drive to parties, enjoying their senior year.

One night as Lizzie is driving them home, she incurs a tragic accident her friend Janie dies, and her life is altered forever.

Bonnie Root is excellent as Lizzie, who becomes suicidal, self-hating and in despair. Her parents attempt to help her, but she at first refuses treatment. She continues to drink and drive, and at one point knocks a child off his bicycle. In court she is sentenced to probation; unintentional vehicular manslaughter.

This film addresses the fall-out and complicated issues of alcoholism/binge drinking. More than 50,000 teens per year are involved in alcohol related accidents, many fatal. However, the film does not just preach, it shows the frustrations of Lizzie's parents, Lizzie's own issues, and why she chooses to drink, and how the victims family is forever affected as well. Very well-presented. 8/10.

Lizzie Williams is a high school senior and an honor student with a drinking problem. Now, I know parents automatically want to believe their children but these parents were so consumed with their own affairs that they didn't notice that their under-age daughter was constantly getting smashed??? It's not like she was doing a little drinking with friends...she was getting hammered...often. Also, if you discover that your child is addicted to alcohol, would you continue to keep it in your home? If you have any sense, the answer would be, "No!" On the other hand, the movie does a good job portraying the perils of under-age drinking (or any age of drunkenness for that matter) and the consequences that may follow.

The movie was very good but the part that bothered me was the fact that nothing happened to the girl that caused the accident. She chose to drink, she chose to drive, and even though she may not have wanted the girl to die, the choices that she made caused it to happen. She was not punished for killing someone. That was so sad that the family had to go through that and the girl that killed her drank through the whole movie. She wanted her friends and others to boycott graduation because she thought she was not being treated fairly. OMG! The whole movie was poor poor Lizzie. Please tell me this girl did not get a happily ever after life. No one wishes her dead but she should have paid for her crime. I am not sure why they continued to have alcohol in their home and the fact that the girl was such a liar did not make it any better. If she had been poor and not an honor student, there would not have been a movie in the first place. The movie was done very well it was just the injustice that bites!

'Playing to Win', 'Champion's Fight (a/k/a 'Shattered Hearts'), and 'The Accident' -- all gripping movies under the popular 'Moment of Truth' franchise. (Oh, let us not forget 'Secret Between Friends'). If ever there is a collection of movies that belongs on DVD, the 'Moment of Truth' franchise is the one.

'The Accident' deals with the dynamics of drinking and driving in a tactful and educational way and should send a strong message to adults AND children (future adolescents) -- DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE, and if you believe you have a drinking problem, or if anyone you know has a drinking problem, GET SOME HELP! For your sake and the sake of those around you.

The girl who this is based on actually came to speak at my high school, way back in the day. She seemed like a total basket case to me, and nothing like the girl who portrays her in the movie. At the time, she was in her mid to late twenties, dressed and spoke in a very tomboyish juvenile sort of way, and kind of seemed like someone who psychologically had never left high school. She even admitted herself that when she first started doing public talks, which was part of her community service, many people thought she seemed too unstable to do it.

Not a particularly effective movie in my opinion, because it seems to gloss over a troubled and erratic personality type that led to such a great deal of self destruction, and attempts to reduce and condense it into a couple month period after the accident, in turn making most of the turmoil appear to be a reaction rather than the cause.

The real life Lizzie went on about her alcoholism, how she would lie cheat and steal to get what she wanted, how she would often steal money from her mother, knew what she was doing was wrong, and hated herself for doing it, but was in a vicious cycle of self destruction, where being in that place was too normalizing for her to do anything else. Kind of someone who's life was destined to be a long painful drawn out mia culpa.

Mostly, she garnered a fairly positive reaction from the kids at the presentation. In my day, it was very popular, and probably still is, for school administrations to try to shock kids into behaving in accordance with whatever the present mode of choice happens to be. Is unleashing complete basket cases who use kids as their own personal mode of catharsis a productive way to teach them reason? Who knows, but being able to postulate on all of this now as a result, sure is fun.