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Created Mar 01, 2011 12:20PM PST • Edited Mar 01, 2011 12:20PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   OK 2.5

   A mediocre film about Astrid (Alison Lohman), a young girl whose artistic mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) poisons a boyfriend and is sent to jail. As a result, Astrid must enter a series of foster homes and group homes, where she becomes exposed to a wide variety of bad influences, including sex, drugs, and abuse.

   Lohman is adequate in her role as the young impressionable girl who takes on characteristics of the foster mother in each home. Although she portrays apathy through the later parts of the film, for the most part she conveys a sense of vulnerability and need for acceptance. Ultimately, however, she fails to convince us as a hardened teenager who is now truly self-sufficient.

   Michelle Pfeiffer also doesn’t come across as being quite as ruthless as her character demands, yet she does have enough moments of intensity to keep her character afloat, especially during some of her jailhouse monologues.

   The story itself seems to be a slight step above what you might find on the Oxygen network, or Lifetime. Yes, the story is painful, but it’s a bit too melodramatic for its own good, and probably could have thrived with a little bit better job of editing. After a while, we become numb to what is happening to Astrid, and with Lohman’s meekness poking through, we really don’t care after a while.

   The premise of the story itself seems solid, and no doubt, the film had the potential to do much more. Nevertheless, in the end, it falls a bit flat overall.

   Watched on Netflix streaming.

4. Acting

   Barely OK 2.0

   Pfeiffer is ok, but not as great as she could have been. Lohman is adequate, but doesn’t really seem to have to range or edginess her character demands.

5. Male Stars Barely OK 2.0

6. Female Stars Barely OK 2.0

7. Female Costars Barely OK 2.0

8. Male Costars Barely OK 2.0

10. Film

    Barely OK 2.0

    I noted some bad special effects in the begining of the film, when the main characters are supposed to be sitting on a hilltop overlooking the city. It was a poor attempt at creating an outdoor scene.

    But even more disturbing for me was the repeated use of a shaky camera. I knwo that the jittering camera shots in action movies have become all the rage over the past 5 years, but this was a drama. And to have the camera bouncing around as it did seemed completely out of place an innapproriate. It did not intesify the drama, or really add to the story. Very puzzling.

11. Direction Barely OK 2.0

12. Play Barely OK 2.0

13. Music Barely OK 2.0

14. Visuals Barely OK 2.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

    No nudity, but audio of sex. Scenes with poeple in underwear. Pretty tame.

18. Violence Fierce 1.9

    One shooting, and an overdose.

19. Rudeness Salty 1.8

    One f-bomb, and some ancillary swearing.

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.3

23. Biological Glib 1.3

24. Physical Glib 1.3