Lesson of a Lifetime (Movies for Women) #1 - Devil in the Flesh

Lesson of a Lifetime (Movies for Women)
Chapter 1 – Devil in the Flesh

After her parents' death, young Debbie Strand is sent to live with her grandmother. But eventually, the older woman's controlling ways work Debbie's very last nerve, and she beats grandma to death with her own cane. Now Debbie has fallen for her new teacher and won't let anyone - especially his girlfriend - get in her way. (www.lifetimetv.com)

I watched Devil in the Flesh last week. It was made in 1998, and it starred Rose McGowen, of Charmed fame, and a reasonably good looking actor who I’d never seen or heard of before (Alex McArthur). The description above leaves out some important plot points:
A. Debbie killed her mother and burned down her own house before moving to live with grandmother, because she caught her mother being romantic with a teacher whom she had an unrequited love for.
B. Debbie’s grandmother beat Debbie’s mother while she was growing up. The grandmother is extremely religious and conservative, and forces Debbie to wear her mother’s outdated, geeky wardrobe. Grandma is only able to give affection to her dog, so Debbie kills it in an effort to upset Grandma, before she proceeding to kill Grandma herself.
C. Debbie steals lingerie to wear to school, which she changes into after leaving the house in her mom’s old duds. Nobody at school seems to notice or care that she’s dressed like a prostitute, except her new creative writing teacher (Alex McArthur), who invites Debbie to help him with his garage sale.
D. Debbie of course becomes infatuated with her new teacher, and starts stalking him. He tells nobody at first, including his stewardess girlfriend, who Debbie tries to kill in the end. She doesn’t succeed, but she is able to off the quarterback of the football team and a social worker before being taken away by a young, handsome police officer, who she gives an adoring look to in the final shot of the film.

Hmm… I have to wonder, did the producers go into it believing they were doing anything remotely original and creative, or did they realize from the offset that this story was completely derivative of films like Fatal Attraction and The Crush? The anonymous cable reviewer of course gave the film 2 stars, and this is one rating that I’d have to agree with. It wasn’t terrible. Rose McGowen played the part convincingly enough; I sort of believed she was a psychopathic teenager with absolutely no emotional maturity but an overly-developed sexuality and a tough veneer due to years of abuse.

The character I had a problem with was the teacher. One of the first things we see him do is engage in a basketball game with a student. If the student wins, he gets an A in the class. If the teacher wins, the student has to try harder. Yeah right. First of all, word of this game would spread through the school like wildfire, and every jock in this teacher’s class would be demanding the same deal. But forget the ethics of giving a kid an A in English class just for winning a game of one on one, and move directly to the “promising to try harder” thing. As anyone who works with teenagers knows, an empty promise from a sixteen year old is about as valuable as an empty promise from a Washington official. The only difference is, instead of laughing quietly to himself over the gullibility of his constituents, the youth would laugh publicly with the rest of the school over how stupid Mr. So-and-So is to believe that the bet meant anything at all.

Second of all, why is it that in every single movie that’s like this one, where a young girl is throwing herself at a man she idolizes, that the object of her affection always waits SO LONG to say anything to anyone? In this case, the worse thing the teacher did was blow off his girlfriend to work a garage sale with young Debbie, and he had a good time gazing at her in her short-shorts and sports bra type halter top. But he didn’t hit on her or cross the line, not really. Except by not saying anything to his girlfriend it made him look all the guiltier when he was forced to because Debbie’s stalking became an “issue in their relationship”.

He also doesn’t say anything to the principal, or to fellow teachers until he’s forced to (there are FBI officials on the case) and it’s not like he doesn’t have the chance. But he’s the cool teacher – a maverick, who believes that a little bit of understanding and mutual respect will work wonders with these kids. Humpf. Guess I’m just cynical, but anyone who doesn’t have the brains to report a stalker-like student immediately, has no place being a teacher in the first place.

That leads me to the main flaw in the film. There were no characters to care about. I didn’t care about Debbie because she was a killer and dressed like a skank. I didn’t care about the teacher because he was an idiot. His girlfriend was an idiot by association; I certainly thought she could do better. And the grandmother was a freak. I did feel sort of sad however, when her dog died.

Another thing – why do these movies always end in the same way? The psycho girls attacks the innocent girlfriend/wife of the guy she’s been stalking, the guy rushes in, and you think he’s successful at stopping her while psycho girl lies still for a moment after being attacked. Then she comes back to life, and attacks again. In this case, Debbie does deliver a blow to the teacher, but he’s carried off to the ambulance and we’re left to believe he’ll be okay. I would have preferred it if he or the girlfriend, or both, had died. Then it wouldn’t have been such a predictable ending.

So what did I learn from this film? I learned that if I’m going to make a movie, to make sure it has an original storyline with characters people can relate to. I also learned to never challenge any of my students to one on one basketball matches (I’d lose every time anyway), and to certainly never blow off my husband’s plans for the weekend in order to work a garage sale for the school’s art department, which I’m not a part of (neither was the teacher in the film).

All valuable lessons, don’t you think?

Lesson of a Lifetime (Movies for Women)

I admit it. I love Lifetime Movies for Women. What’s not to love? Beautiful people – but not so beautiful that they don’t look real – doing things like battling mysterious terminal illnesses, running from crazy stalkers who seemed normal when they moved in next door, extorting corrupt ex-husbands while falling in love with the adorable yet gruff looking police chief who is on the case, and saving their daughters from combinations of eating disorders, venereal diseases, prostitution rings, and the pressures of making it into the Ivey League, all while driving an affordable yet trendy car and sporting a similar wardrobe, hair cut, and living situation.
If the dialogue, storylines, and acting in these films are tired or trite, then they’re made up for with a combination of campiness and comforting predictability. I usually watch them in half hour segments, early in the morning, while I am working out in my living room. That’s right, I start my mornings with Lifetime Movies for Women, and their resonance stays with me throughout the day. Perhaps it’s because I never watch them all in one sitting, but rather, stretched out over a 3 to 4 day period, that I think about and analyze them during my down time, like when I’m driving to and from work, eating lunch at my desk, or going to the bathroom. Whatever. I’ve been devoting a lot of thought to these films, while others see them as skimming the bottom of the television food-chain.
I don’t think that way. These movies actually have value. And they’re not all the same; although you wouldn’t know it by how they’re rated. I have digital cable, and when I press the information button on my remote to find out more about any given film, I always check out how many stars the film received. Nine times out of ten, it’s been given two stars. Every now and then one will get two and half stars, and I’ll know this movie must be truly special and I’ll record it. I never record the ones that get one and a half stars (I’ve come across a few that have), and the only time I’ve ever seen one get three stars is if it’s a replay of a Hollywood film. I have NEVER come by a movie on Lifetime that’s gotten four stars. I suspect that four stars are reserved for films that aren’t meant just for women.
So if they’re all rated the same, how do I choose? I have a few criteria. Anything that’s about high school girls or young mothers (I teach high school and have a young child), anything that’s scary-suspenseful, or anything with Shannen Doherty (I just like her) is a green light. Tori Spelling are Jenny Garth are both yellow lights; so are stalker stories and/or court-room dramas. Anything starring Melissa Gilbert or that was made before 1998 is pretty much a red-light; unlike wine, these films do not get better with age.
Anyway, I have decided I have been spending too many hours watching then mulling over these films to have nothing to show for it. So I am going to record my thoughts, and tell you or anyone who cares enough to read this, what I’ve learned from watching. In other words, I am ready to share with the world my Lessons of a Lifetime Movies for Women.
More is Coming Soon!