A family's well-kept secrets are exposed when the daughter accuses her ex-boyfriend of rape.
Reviews
Laura Stone (Kelly Preston) is a college literature professor sleeping with one of her students. Daniel Stone (Ron Eldard) is a stay-at-home comic book illustrator. Their high school daughter Trixie (Britt Robertson) gets dumped by her boyfriend Jason Underhill. At a drunken party, she reconnects with him. She claims rape but nobody at school believes her. Police detective Mike Bartholomy (Michael Riley) investigates. The case turns. One night, a drunken Jason falls to his death. Trixie suspects her father due to a previous incident.This is a Lifetime movie. There may be some ambitions but I don't really like anybody or find the situation compelling. Jason needs to be more of a douche. Trixie is too desperate after getting dumped. The mysterious death comes to an unsatisfying resolution. I can stomach a standard Lifetime movie but this is somehow worst.
Not as gripping as it could have been but the essence of Jodi Picoult's story is intact. An interesting aspect of the novel was the graphic novel intersecting each chapter, which explores the father's psyche. His conflicted feelings for wife and daughter are revealed vicariously through his illustrations and story-telling. His wife's obsession with Dante's Inferno, the class she teaches at university, becomes his obsession, too, since he explores the same theme through his comic book characters. Had this been a big budget film with animation telling this aspect of the story, it would have been visually intriguing! The father's sensitivity and artistic bent is an essential part of the central conflict and does not come across convincingly in this TV movie. On a superficial level, this film tells a story of a family in trauma, but the actors are not compelling enough to ring true. Any husband and wife who have struggled with raising a teenage child will probably agree this is a weak portrayal...but a young audience might identify with the teen angst of Trixie, the troubled young victim.
OK Im not really that good with being smart and all that. So this comment probably won't help you one bit!!! But I love the book. I saw the movie and I loved it! And thats how I found about the book in the first place. I just started reading the book and Im sorry if Im repeating myself. But I love both the book and the movie. When I get done reading the book then I'll put away better comment. But I just was trying to get a point out. I think both of them are wonderful. Now I just have to babble because this isn't long enough. But for whoever reads this....Please tell me the difference between the book and movie...But please don't spoil the ending!!!!
I first read The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult a few years ago and really enjoyed it and have since read it several more times. It is a very good story with really interesting twists and very fascinating and complex characters. I was a more than a little disappointed to discover that they were making it into a Lifetime TV movie.And just like I expected, despite the good story that certainly has the potential to be a solid movie, it was transformed into a cheesy and poorly acted Lifetime flick. As you watch, you feel indifferent towards the characters and bored with the clichéd plot. Amazing how this great book could be turned into yet another run-of-the-mill Lifetime movie with the same worn storyline and boring characters.