Guilty at 17 (TV Movie 2014)

Guilty at 17: Directed by Anthony Lefresne. With Erin Sanders, Alex Paxton-Beesley, Catherine Dent, Michael Woods. A teenager becomes overwhelmed with guilt after her lies to support a friend’s claim of sexual assault lead to the accused teacher’s suicide.

“Guilty at 17 was carried by one of the movie channels and aired on July 6 when I caught it, happening to be awake when otherwise Iu0026#39;d normally be in bed. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film gets right to the point: with allegations of sexual abuse. The premise is perfect for a sizzling tennis match with conflicting testimonies, hidden agendas, teenage angst under peer pressure and undercover investigative work to search for the truth. However, bad script writing then takes over and weu0026#39;re left with a half-hearted badminton match between two key personalities, the heroine and the villainess. Both appear hamstrung by some ludicrous moments in the script that render the film almost comical. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs a viewer, I thought June Gaileyu0026#39;s grief simply too mechanical at the teacheru0026#39;s suicide. Her moment of denial at his death is fleeting. Her anger was non-existent. Her recollection of happier times with him is blatantly absent. She moves straight to the final stage of bereavement by token acceptance. The audience is left bewildered at her decision to then turn around and investigate this suicide as suspicious. Overall, Alex Paxton-Beesly starts with tremendous potential since sheu0026#39;s the u0026quot;livingu0026quot; victim of a dastardly deed but the directors squander this capital by canning her emotional expression.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eChloe Rose plays the bad girl Devon Cavanor and I think she does a terrific job being the pathological schemer eventually caught up in her own game. The scenes of conflict between June and Devon are there in theory but are simply not exploited. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe audience expects a dramatic flare up between the two women in the classic sense: u0026quot;goodu0026quot; girl against u0026quot;badu0026quot; girl. Alas, thereu0026#39;s no shouting or screaming, pulling of hair, glass shattering, dishes smashing and tables tumbling. Thereu0026#39;s no passion at all! It might be corny but even some little action between the heroine and the villain, a little hot, intense girl on girl fight scene, for example, would bump up the entertainment value, providing some dramatic relief to the monotony of poor script. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFinally, many of the personalities portrayed appear u0026quot;out of characteru0026quot; with their real person seeming to take over at times, leaving one wondering whether weu0026#39;re still in the movie or in a reality TV series. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall the film needs some serious editing and a major script overhaul but thatu0026#39;s probably not to be expected from its Canadian producers.”