Mutter unter Beschuss (TV Movie 2001)

Mutter unter Beschuss: Directed by Alan Metzger. With Mare Winningham, Felicity Huffman, Chelcie Ross, Megan Fahlenbock. Single mother Jennifer Bradley often lets her young children run around and frolic at home in diapers, underwear or even the bare. She thinks nothing of it when their godmother Carrie Dixon, Jen’s best friend since college, joins in and shoots 36 pictures of their rumbling. But the photo lab reports, as the law and the Bush era ‘moral majority’ prudish mentality require, reports this ‘possible child pornography’ to the police. Chicago PD detective John Collins takes the case. The children are placed in temporary custody with their grandparents by the court at Social Services’ initial recommendation. Attorney Steve Godwin accepts to defend his friend Jen. The case seems to cool, but then Jen is arrested and tried for multiple child abuse.

“Do you like horrors? You have Friday the 13th or Halloween in your mind? Forget all those ketchup-based movies! This one is a real horror. Horror is something that should make you scared, really scared so your hands will tremble and your pulse rate jump to 150. How many chances are that you meet an alien or Freddy Kruger in your basement (or youu0026#39;ll more likely meet a burglar)? Do you think itu0026#39;s King-Carpenteru0026#39;s driverless Christina or Spielbergu0026#39;s ghost truck that is your threat in the street (or is it a drunk kid from the block)? Is a haunted castle or Muldairu0026#39;s alien spacecraft a place that youu0026#39;ll be imprisoned in (or could it be a mental institution due to wrong diagnosis?).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere are real horrors that can happen in your, mine, anybodyu0026#39;s life, but they donu0026#39;t seem to be attractive to movie makers. It was a real life story that inspired the authors, otherwise we probably still wouldnu0026#39;t see such a movie. And the horror is one of the most threatening: false accusation for child abuse. You can compare it only to anticommunists accusations beyond Iron curtain in 50u0026#39;s, suspected witches centuries ago, and maybe (but just maybe) fetvas in Islamic countries.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere are three steps to horror (so youu0026#39;ll never see heaven). First, suspicion. Few days you can think itu0026#39;s a nightmare, your friends and family think itu0026#39;s a mistake; but you wonu0026#39;t wake up and all the others will become cautious. Second step, punishment. You are abandoned by everyone during trial, some of them will join those who prosecute you either because they believe you are guilty or because they have some interest; while in jail you are on the bottom of survival ladder with no one to protect you. Third step, nothingness. If ever you leave the jail alive, no one will want to meet you or confirm they ever knew you, afraid because people might think they are the same like you if seen with you; you will be a ghost, and sometimes even happy if someone doesnu0026#39;t decide you are a free prey for hunting and shooting.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI donu0026#39;t believe Jen and Carrie ever found a true happy-end in reality. Once hearing such an accusation people always tend to avoid these persons, either in doubt about their guilt (just couldnu0026#39;t be proved) or for being afraid theyu0026#39;re under surveillance. Once suspects for being witches / anticommunists / molesters people terminate their normal social life for good.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Iu0026#39;ve never thought something like this could happen in Americau0026quot; said Carrie. In fact, I donu0026#39;t know it could happen anywhere else. Such a banal cause, such intense hatred by individuals and mass hysteria following them… I canu0026#39;t imagine it in any other place.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie makes people think, but thatu0026#39;s the best one can say about it. As often in TV movies made from a real story we have one person in the middle, and we never find what was Collinsu0026#39; motif – personal experience, religious fanaticism, building career, following society streams? We donu0026#39;t know much about Carrie either – what kind of photographs was she famous for? Jennifer is pale as a character. If it was made on purpose, if it was supposed to show how Jennifer was lost in these absurd circumstances, Mare Winningham didnu0026#39;t show it. In fact it was her (and being a big fan of her I watched this movie only after seeing her name in cast) worst role Iu0026#39;ve ever seen. It would be better if she repeated her acting in u0026quot;Intrudersu0026quot;.”