A Father's Choice (2000 TV Movie) User Reviews

murder mystery hole

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 19 June 2021]

Sisters Kelly (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Chris McClain (Yvonne Zima) have a comfortable well-off living in L. A. A mystery man kills their mom and lets Chris live. The girls go live with their cowboy father Charlie 'Mac' McClain (Peter Strauss) on a ranch for their safety. Their aunt Gayle Miller (Susan Hogan) wants to take them to Chicago. She never liked Mac. Susan Shaw (Mary McDonnell) is from Family Services.

This is "Inspired by a True Story". Inspired usually means close to fictional. It's a fine family film but it leaves the murder mystery unresolved. It seems like a giant hole in the middle of the movie. I kept waiting for the aunt to be the killer or the father to be accused. The aunt accusing the father would seem to be a good courtroom tatic to get custody. If the story could leave out the murder mystery, this would be a fine low intensity family film.

Family fare

[fmwongmd · 5/10 · 16 August 2019]

Not to be disparaging or unfair but this is solidly in the family fare category with solid performances by Peter Strauss and Mary McDonnell.

Essential viewing for Trachtenberg fans, v1.01

[annevejb · 28 September 2009]

Along with Forever Together and Christmas In My Hometown, I rate this as the best of the early Trachtenberg features that I have, so far. I do not like to compare these with the series Pete, Pete and Buffy.

Forever Together as romantic Tracht. I rate it as the pinnacle, but the low budget is fairly obvious.

A Father's Choice is also low budget, but that does not show to such an extent. Here she is a disillusioned early teen whose reality is gradually becoming less putrid. It is quality, as is Forever, just it is not big budget type quality but a quality story.

My DVD is 4x3 NTSC.

two problems

[sandcrab277 · 1/10 · 5 January 2020]

Mary mcdonnell and peter strauss ruined this film for me because they have the emotional responses of a box of kleenex ... the two young girls acted like they should have after the loss of their adult keeper mother but didn't convince me beyond reproach ...

Comfortable feel-good film with great acting.

[ttaskmaster · 10/10 · 2 March 2010]

Despite being inspired by true events, this story doesn't follow the typical trend of investigating the murder, catching the killer etc.

Instead, it focuses on the people who remain and where they go from there. In this case, two young LA girls, whose father had abandoned them in favour of a life in the Rodeo road shows. The girls must leave behind their comfortable life of plenty and get used to life with their father, on a small-town ranch without so much as a telephone.

Thrust in the deep end as a sudden single parent, this real-life cowboy is forced to reconnect with them. The "Father's Choice" comes when his old life again calls him to glory as a champion and he must choose between being a cowboy and being a father.

Although the tale progresses as you might expect, it is nonetheless very touching and the cast do an outstanding job of bringing true feeling into their portrayals.

Impressive anyway, given the casting of both Peter Strauss and Mary McDonnell, but the real stars are the young girls - Michelle Trachtenberg and Yvonne Zima.

True story works well

[sjanders-86430 · 10/10 · 25 October 2020]

The absentee father get his daughters when their mother is shot. They never caught the shooter. At first daughters feel somewhat out of place. The turning point is when the horse gives birth, and their dad performs the delivery. The foal brings them together as a family. The father refuses to go back on the rodeo circuit, because he wants to father his daughters. They love each other. At the custody hearing the girls tell the judge they want to stay with their father, and he is granted full custody. Very well acted by all.

does anyone care about the mother?

[RONY-3 · 28 May 2001]

This is your typical movie about a parent trying to reconnect with his children after the death of his ex-spouse. It's pretty much routine. However, the one thing that I think they overlooked or didn't address was the apprehension of the girls' mother's killer. In the end the mother's killer was never caught. Don't you think that would be something that's going to haunt the girls? If this is a true story, there's not much that can be done.

Good Movie

[tlboudreau · 8/10 · 1 November 2003]

I was lucky enough to be attending Bow Valley College (Airdrie Campus) at the time they were there to film the court scenes of the movie (BVC Airdrie campus is attached to the Airdrie Courthouse). Even better, I was given permission to job shadow the set designer and mingle with all the cast! Peter Strauss is very nice (and a bit of a prankster who kept pulling faces at the camera and making the director roll his eyes). I liked the movie, unfortunately I never got a chance to videotape it when it came on television since I did not have a vcr at the time, but I did get to keep an autographed copy of the movie script (somewhere in my packed boxes in storage).

Other that the murder of the mother it is very family friendly

[jewelch · 8/10 · 29 January 2021]

Viewing this film gets the city out of your mind. The rodeo skills and scenes looked real. You could almost smell the hay. Acting was overall a 4.5. This story apparently was based on real events, and it played as real. Kudos for the dad stepping up. All four main characters had to change, and through it came opportunity to grow. Yes I recommend this very family friendly movie. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 1/28/2021