Fighting for My Daughter (1995) (TV)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Peter Levin

Writer (WGA):

Eric Blakeney (written by)

Release Date:

9 January 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Punishment | Drinking | Handcuffs | Kissing | Sex

Cast

Lindsay Wagner	...	Kate Kerner
Piper Laurie	...	Judge Edna Burton
Chad Lowe	...	Eric
Kirk Baltz	...	Russell
Deirdre O'Connell	...	Peggy
Paul Lieber	...	Martin
Deanna Milligan	...	Tracy
Renée Humphrey	...	Jessie
Christopher Gray	...	Danny
Enuka Okuma	...	Ronnie (as Enuka Vanessa Okuma)
Jennifer Copping	...	Gina
Lisha Snelgrove	...	Sheila
Kevin McNulty	...	Sergeant Burnett
Richard Leacock	...	Dominic
Denalda Williams	...	Nina

Runtime:

USA:120 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Company:

Hallmark Entertainment

fighting a bad dye job

Lindsay Wagner is Kate Kerner, a Washington computer programmer whose 16 year old daughter Jesse (Renee Humphrey) is `turned out' ie seduced into the life of a prostitute with the help of pimps Eric Lambert (Chad Lowe) and Russell (Kurt Baltz).

Kate has copper-red long hair which looks simply awful on Wagner, who wears a wig of grey-blonde color when she poses as a prostitute to get information on Jesse's whereabouts. Although inclined to utilise a hair flicking mannerism, Wagner's best moments are when parodying the misogynistic lyrics of rap music, arguing with a disinterested prostitute when showing her Jesse's picture, the Bionic smashing open of a door with a fire extinguisher, and the confrontation with Jesse which makes her leave home. In the latter Wagner's face slapping is unconvincing, but she intones `He is using you' and in reaction to Jesse's I don't want your help `Well, you don't have a choice' with force, and supplies a jittery broken reaction to Jesse's exit.

The teleplay by Eric Blakeney, based on a true story, presents Kate as a weak mother who is too lenient with Jesse, as a reaction to the conservatism of her own mother Edna Burton (Piper Laurie) who is a Judge! Perhaps the red hair is supposed to be a remnant of Kate's rebelliousness, since she is a former biker's moll, and abandoned mother. Although given that the context makes Jesse's unhappiness seem relatively inexplicable, Blakeney does provide a funny phrase in `the ferocity of a butterfly'.

Director Peter Levin doesn't make Wagner's transformation into a prostitute funny, the way he does her friend Peggy (Deirdre O'Connell), and he cuts away from Wagner's telling off a `don't-give-a-crap-attitude' cop which reads as over-reaction anyway.