On Thin Ice (TV Movie 2003)

On Thin Ice: Directed by David Attwood. With Diane Keaton, Frank Adamson, Lisa Best, Lothaire Bluteau. Based on a true story. Patsy McCartle is a widow with two sons trying to gather all the money she has to pay for her car, bills, and her son’s medication, all of which she can barely afford. Patsy then turns to dealing drugs and becomes addicted to crystal meth. Her only way of recovery rests in the hands of her children.

“Diane Keaton plays a widowed mother of two young boys (one of whom has serious asthma) working odd jobs but falling behind on the bills; after running into an old friend who seems to have lots of money on hand, Keaton goes on her first drug-run. Dealing Crystal Meth seems like a good solution for awhile, until the local drug lord has Keaton become a partaker to prove her worth. Serious subject matter is pitched too high, with jittery Keaton flaky and flighty, but without her charming edge (sheu0026#39;s a walking nervous breakdown). The personalities of her two kids are unconvincing (as is their general dialogue and relationship with their mom), and the supporting characters as well never take shape. TV-movie has such a fuzzy narrative that I wasnu0026#39;t even sure which state it was supposed to take place in (I believe North Carolina, though it was filmed in Canada), and Keaton begins the movie as a cleaning woman but never returns to that job again. The tone of the film shifts jarringly in the second-half from character study to melodrama, a change which doesnu0026#39;t suit anyone here particularly well.”