Les soupçons de Mary

I viewed this film because I admire Melissa Joan Hart as an actress, and she's certainly good in this one. The problem is not her, but the film itself. It plods its way through unimaginative storyline to a predictable conclusion. Just when you think the movie is going to have an interesting twist, it doesn't. It never shifts out of its "nail the bad guy" rut.

Melissa, who is great in the TV series "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" plays a student named Mary who is a reporter for the college newspaper. Her room-mate Holly gets thoroughly drunk at a party, and the college football hero takes advantage of her.

Holly cries rape, but no-one takes it too seriously. The college tries to sweep it under the carpet because they don't want to look as if they have an unsafe campus, and because the football hero is the key player in the team who will win them the premiership and get the college an extra million dollars of funding.

Even Holly doesn't want to go to the police because she is too upset, and she is just trying to cope, trying to hang on, trying to forget it ever happened, and besides, she feels it was probably her own fault for getting drunk, and for acting sexy and leading him on.

Three other actors give the film a lift whenever they're on-screen. Teryl Rothery, as Detective Brubaker, has a small part. Rothery is very famous for her voice work in Japanese anime, as well as being famous for her brilliant acting in just about every second or third TV series you could name. So why was she given such a small role in this one?

The second is Melissa's brilliant little sister Emily, who played in several episodes of "Sabrina", as the spoilt brat whom Sabrina had to babysit. She's only on for a few lines, so it's another case of wasting a great actress. I predict she'll be an even bigger star than Melissa, so keep an eye on her.

There's also Peter MacNicol, famous for his role as "The Biscuit" (John Cage) in the Ally McBeal TV series. His role is no bigger than Rothery's.

I'm not saying you shouldn't see the film. It's not a total loss. Any film with the Hart sisters in it is worth seeing, just for them. And Rothery makes it essential viewing too. I'm just saying that they could have made a much, much better film if they had used more of the great acting talent they had available, and had re-written the script with entertainment in mind, rather than aiming at heavily labouring the point that there's no excuse for rape, and that it must be fought against, not swept under the carpet.

In my work with the only nationwide non-profit organization, Security On Campus, Inc. dedicated exclusively to the issue of college campus crime prevention and student awareness I see all too often the type of campus violence and `cover-up' through secret campus courts portrayed in the movie `Silencing Mary.' In fact we receive numerous calls and requests for information every month from campus reporters such as `Mary' who are facing similar situations.

Its depiction of a campus rape and the subsequent crusade by `Mary,' the victim's roommate and a student journalist played exceedingly well by Melissa Joan Hart, for justice was very well done and accurately researched.

This was the first television movie that I have ever seen that I felt truly reflected and encompassed all of the various complex issues associated with how rape and other violent crimes are dealt with on our nation's college and university campuses. Although it would not be possible to address all of these issues in depth in 2 hours, this movie comes closer than any others I've seen.

This movie does show a lot for security both Campus & Police that shows that it has shown how Campus crimes were once hidden from Police and is getting to a point that more and more they can't hide it any more. Law is getting to a point where one of these days we can't hide crime like we used too. CourtTV has run it as some other channels have for the same reason. Too bad Melissa Joan Hart hasn't made anything off it or any many other movie's she's done.

A very slow paced but aggressive investigation by a campus journalist played by Melissa Joan Hart leads to the apprehension of an identified rapist who happened to be one of the outstanding football player of their campus. For Mary, there's no such thing as backing out for what she have started as she was really motivated to pursue the justice that her friend "Molly" deserves even if its the reputation of the whole campus administration which is at stake. As for the very poor intensity mood of playing the role of Mary, so is the way the movie evolves into a lousy concept of a thriller film w/c doesn't even earned a climax. The only accelerating factor was that it was topped by a very energetic, strong appealing "Melissa Joan Hart" who for the very first place should not supposed accepted the role because she have her self credited with great sitcom's such as her adoring "Clarissa" and "Sabrina" and what would be a possible feedback was that this film would be a stumbling block to her flourishing career. For what I know...she's the only cream of this CRAP.

Not only is this an excellent vehicle for Melissa Joan Hart, the precocious little darling of the pre-teen sit-com, "Clarissa Explains It All," and lately of ABC's "Sabrina, the Teenaged Witch," but is a fine little MOW in its own right. The script is tidy, the direction steady and the story nonsensational, but uncompromised. The big-time college football culture is captured well.

Hart plays campus newspaper reporter Mary Stuartson who pursues the story of an attempted cover-up by "Cornwell University" of the date rape of her roommate by star quarterback Clay Roberts. Hart is modestly heroic as she works to nail Roberts, played with testosterone cockiness and an edge of psychopathology by, I believe, Lochlyn Munro.

This movie works especially well for Hart because as a reporter she gets to talk a lot, asking questions, and she is a great talker; and when talking her face becomes expressive and natural and very winning. If she is forced to just mug a lot, as she does on Sabrina, she tends to fall back on a repertoire of expressions that soon begins to repeat.

I realized while watching this that Melissa Joan Hart is at her best as a fighter. She's not just plunky, but she's strong, and that's really no surprise because, if you've been pursuing a career as an actress since you were a little kid, you'd be tough too.

Clarissa fans will be happy to see that Hart gets to model six or seven different hair-dos and a number of cute outfits, and there are several Clarissa-style close-ups of her with minimal makeup so that her freckles show and her big blue eyes, like marbles in well water, are shown to advantage.

Notable is the fine performance by Lisa Dean Ryan as Mary's friend who was raped.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)