Taylor Spreitler, as Angela Curson, is a high school girl of seventeen and is pregnant. But that's not where the problem lies. A few words of admonishment from her parents -- nice performance from Amy Pietz as the concerned mother -- and the middle-class Curson family happily sets about buying baby doo-dads and fixing up the spare room for a nursery, little pink figures in the wall paper and whatnot. Oh, the family presumably still wishes that their little girl hadn't gotten knocked up at sixteen, but let's put that behind us. Everything is hunky-dory.
Except for one thing. The young college student, Chuck Hittinger as Chad Bruning, the father-to-be. The writers have no intention of challenging the viewer. They spill the beans about who's right and who's wrong right off the bat with those names. Now, I ask you, the experienced viewer, the perspicacious assessor, who is good and who is bad -- someone named "Angela Curson" or someone named "Chad Bruning"?
Actually Hittinger looks a little like the late Patrick Swayze, and he's all enthusiastic about the pregnancy. Apparently a nice young man, he tries to pressure Spreitler into marrying him so they can live together happily. But by this time the young girl and her family have rethought things. Hittinger is just not their type. So they tell him to bug off. Little did they know that tragedy lay just around the corner.
Hittinger had been adopted as a somewhat wayward child by the morally upright Linda Purl. Hittinger's real mother had been a junkie and had wound up in the Crowbar Hotel, but she'd been Purl's housekeeper and, out of kindness, Purl accepted the orphaned Hittinger. (I hope you're following all this.) Now the real mother shows up and begs Purl for her old job back. She's clean and ready. Purl rudely throws her out for no discernible reason.
Hittinger's miscreant mother is played by Jamie Luner. She's the most impressive performer in the movie. Deglamorized to the point of homeliness, she exudes pathos and passion. The scene in which Luner politely begs Purl for her old job, while Purl folds her arms across her chest and frowns down at this wreck of a woman may be the only moving moment in the entire story.
I think the rest is predictable enough not to need too much description. Hittinger becomes obsessed with "his" child. His importunings become more obvious and more demanding. There is a fist fight with Spreitler's father in a parking lot. Her father is a middle-aged white collar professional but has little trouble decking a larger and younger college student. Finally, with the help of his real mother, Hittinger kidnaps Spreitler and the baby. Tragedy ensues.
It's a terrible movie. I watched it fascinated, to see how low it would stoop, how fantastic the plot had to become, to end the way it did. Poor Taylor Spreitler. She's a cute blond but cannot act. And when she's supposed to be pregnant, waddling around wearing that prosthesis under her jersey, the sight is preposterous.
The movie embodies two not entirely unpleasant fantasies: (1) Being made a victim so everyone is on your side, and (2) being so desirable that a man would be willing to kill for you. Watch it if you're really curious about this genre.
Except for one thing. The young college student, Chuck Hittinger as Chad Bruning, the father-to-be. The writers have no intention of challenging the viewer. They spill the beans about who's right and who's wrong right off the bat with those names. Now, I ask you, the experienced viewer, the perspicacious assessor, who is good and who is bad -- someone named "Angela Curson" or someone named "Chad Bruning"?
Actually Hittinger looks a little like the late Patrick Swayze, and he's all enthusiastic about the pregnancy. Apparently a nice young man, he tries to pressure Spreitler into marrying him so they can live together happily. But by this time the young girl and her family have rethought things. Hittinger is just not their type. So they tell him to bug off. Little did they know that tragedy lay just around the corner.
Hittinger had been adopted as a somewhat wayward child by the morally upright Linda Purl. Hittinger's real mother had been a junkie and had wound up in the Crowbar Hotel, but she'd been Purl's housekeeper and, out of kindness, Purl accepted the orphaned Hittinger. (I hope you're following all this.) Now the real mother shows up and begs Purl for her old job back. She's clean and ready. Purl rudely throws her out for no discernible reason.
Hittinger's miscreant mother is played by Jamie Luner. She's the most impressive performer in the movie. Deglamorized to the point of homeliness, she exudes pathos and passion. The scene in which Luner politely begs Purl for her old job, while Purl folds her arms across her chest and frowns down at this wreck of a woman may be the only moving moment in the entire story.
I think the rest is predictable enough not to need too much description. Hittinger becomes obsessed with "his" child. His importunings become more obvious and more demanding. There is a fist fight with Spreitler's father in a parking lot. Her father is a middle-aged white collar professional but has little trouble decking a larger and younger college student. Finally, with the help of his real mother, Hittinger kidnaps Spreitler and the baby. Tragedy ensues.
It's a terrible movie. I watched it fascinated, to see how low it would stoop, how fantastic the plot had to become, to end the way it did. Poor Taylor Spreitler. She's a cute blond but cannot act. And when she's supposed to be pregnant, waddling around wearing that prosthesis under her jersey, the sight is preposterous.
The movie embodies two not entirely unpleasant fantasies: (1) Being made a victim so everyone is on your side, and (2) being so desirable that a man would be willing to kill for you. Watch it if you're really curious about this genre.