How can some film makers possibly title a film with the word "the truth" to have one of the characters saying "Sometimes it's best not to tell the truth, don't be so hard on yourself"?
The truth is that this "lifetime" movie goes beyond absurdity. The characters are such cartoons with the goodies being the ones who say "follow your feelings" and the villains those who dare to say what's right and what's not. Yet perhaps the most insulting thing this film has is its narrow approach to the subject. These parents really deserve to go through this hell because of their ignorance and their incontrollable eagerness to be approved (and loved) by their daughter, which is precisely what this character penalizes. Do they try to study and learn more about homosexuality, how it is developed or it finally becomes a deliberate choice and not naively a genetic definition? NO!, They just react like some bigots who are magically changed by their obsession with their girl's acceptance, And believe me, this teen-age is years-light more mature than her folks, more conscious, tolerant and balanced, She even lectures her father that a lesbian and a tomboy girl are not the same and sends her mother to some sort of AA meeting for parents who are sick because they can't rejoice at the fact that their breed are queer. The point is not merely to portray homosexuals as victims (which of course they do) but as the real saviors of the American family. This film becomes so manipulative and so predictable that its failure is that it precisely lacks what it preaches: how to deal as individuals and as a family on the painful issue of self-discovery that teen-age is about. But when you overrate teen-age, simplistic and frivolous focus is what you get.
The truth is that this "lifetime" movie goes beyond absurdity. The characters are such cartoons with the goodies being the ones who say "follow your feelings" and the villains those who dare to say what's right and what's not. Yet perhaps the most insulting thing this film has is its narrow approach to the subject. These parents really deserve to go through this hell because of their ignorance and their incontrollable eagerness to be approved (and loved) by their daughter, which is precisely what this character penalizes. Do they try to study and learn more about homosexuality, how it is developed or it finally becomes a deliberate choice and not naively a genetic definition? NO!, They just react like some bigots who are magically changed by their obsession with their girl's acceptance, And believe me, this teen-age is years-light more mature than her folks, more conscious, tolerant and balanced, She even lectures her father that a lesbian and a tomboy girl are not the same and sends her mother to some sort of AA meeting for parents who are sick because they can't rejoice at the fact that their breed are queer. The point is not merely to portray homosexuals as victims (which of course they do) but as the real saviors of the American family. This film becomes so manipulative and so predictable that its failure is that it precisely lacks what it preaches: how to deal as individuals and as a family on the painful issue of self-discovery that teen-age is about. But when you overrate teen-age, simplistic and frivolous focus is what you get.