Deborah Amelon Movies

Obsessed with the belief that a slender figure is the most important thing on earth, domineering mother Marsha Hunter (Barbara Hershey) forces her two daughters Frannie (Christina Hendricks) and Shelly (Susan May Pratt) to adhere to rigid diets and exercise regimens. Any extra poundage is subject to cruel ridicule by the manic Marsha, while her passive husband (John Getz), as cowed by his wife as everyone else, offers no comfort or solace for his beleaguered daughters. Marsha's well-meaning but tragically short-sided view of feminine attractiveness drives one daughter into a mental hospital with a psychosomatic eating disorder and the other into a desperate act of self-destruction. Based on a novel by Jillian Medoff, the made-for-cable Hunger Point premiered January 13, 2003, on the Lifetime network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in 1982 but unreleased until after the success of 1983's Valley Girl, this is a low-budget mix of valley-speak, trendiness, and message. In the end, it may have proved too difficult to combine dialogue such as "grody to the max," sex scenes, a bubbly teenager or two, the noble objective of saving an orphanage, and a rambling plot and still come out ahead. Saving the orphanage involves an unrealistic scheme to steal money from cocaine dealers, while other problems involve how to convince your boyfriend to have sex with you -- another stretch of reality. Flaws in this film do not include the acting on the part of the teens (Jill Carroll, Sharon Lea, and others) which is not to be faulted. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide