Twelve Mile Road (2003)

the audience applauded

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is actually my first review on IMDb, and I felt compelled to do it because the movie left such a bad taste in my mouth (pun not intended, but I'll leave it in). This movie was so awful, specifically in one respect--and that is animal cruelty. I kept waiting for the redemption/apology/retribution of the girl (Dulcie), which never came, and finally stopped watching the movie because my dislike of her character was so strong.What was wrong with her anyway? She had to have been severely abused either mentally or sexually, or something! Why wasn't she in intensive therapy--she was so filled with hatred for apparently no reason: her mother's a successful lawyer who isn't home all the time. Wah. Her parents got divorced. Wah. Shortly after she arrives at her dad's farm for the summer (for which she is very angry and depressed), she is approached by this sweetie of a cow, who has such loving energy. What does this girl (and believe me, I want to call her a slew of other things) do? Pours antifreeze in the cow's mouth (with the cow faithfully sucking at it), while saying "You want this, you jugheaded freak?" --one of the worst, most disgusting scenes I've ever had to watch. Seriously. It makes me want to do violence towards her.I kept waiting for her to admit what she did, express dismay or sorrow for it...nope. It even showed her in the barn with the dad, with the did picking up the jug and looking at it, with the girl right there? Any look in her eye to show regret? No. Stopped watching, and from what I've read in other reviews (unfortunately I didn't read them BEFORE I watched the movie), the girl NEVER admits it or makes up for it in any way. If I had read the reviews beforehand and realized this movie was going to be about a spoiled sociopath, I wouldn't have watched it!

It was Fathers' Day when I watched this movie on CBS. The day when I went home from church, I read the Sunday newspaper for the week, and found the TV channel section and looked under "Sunday's Best". What happened next? I'm given a short summary on 12 Mile Road. I thought, "Maybe the main character was going to be laid-back". I was wrong. The local newspaper I read, The News & Observer, said that the character was "a wild child with a destructive streak." When I saw the preview while watching Cold Case on TV (the episode had a 1990 murder), two things were wrong with the movie: the troublesome girl, and the setting. The main character did not have a fashion like today's kids on skateboards. Instead, the main character looks as if she got her clothes and cosmetics at Hot Topic (yes, Maggie Grace, I'm talking about YOUR performance in this movie). When I saw the strangely dressed teenager, I thought "PERSONAL FOUL! Did Alex Varkatzas tell her to dress this way?"--I was wrong. Alex Varkatzas had nothing to do with this--and any fans of Maggie Grace would be grossed out had they seen this movie on TV (just look at the way she dresses!). I hate to sound like Jim Cramer and Simon Cowell, but this wasn't Maggie Grace's best work. That was absolutely terrible. My advice: for Maggie Grace, wait until Season 2 of Lost, or wait for the new movie The Fog, also starring Smallville lead Tom Welling. Maggie Grace can do better than this. Congratulations to Tom Selleck for keeping her in line throughout the movie--and for the times where you JUST CAN'T STAND the main character. Sheesh!

Simply Awful. This is the worst kind of movie - confusing, frustrating, and ultimately, a waste of the actors' talents and the viewers' time. It took talented actors, gave them multiple opportunities to explore complex subjects, and either shrugged them off with a cliché or chickened out and ignored them entirely. As I was watching, it felt like it was a particularly bad adaptation of a much longer story, maybe by someone who completely missed the point of a book and only included the parts that didn't make him uncomfortable. By the end, I didn't really care - I was just furious about the two hours of my life that I'll never get back.What little plot there is involves the fate of Dulcie, the child of divorced parents. Her behavior is so out of control that her lawyer mother can't handle her, and sends her to live with her rancher father. When we first see Dulcie, she is rude, obnoxious, spoiled and completely unpleasant. But soon she does something so hideous that it's apparent that the girl doesn't need time with Daddy, she needs intensive therapy, immediately. At one point her father asks "Are you crazy" and I wanted to yell "Yes! Are you blind? Get that girl a doctor!" But ultimately, that hideously cruel act is never discovered, and instead the memory of it is left to fester. Maybe 15 years from now we'll get a much more interesting sequel about the psychological wreck this girl has grown into.Tom Selleck plays the Dad, Stephen; his girlfriend Leah and Leah's teen-aged daughter Roxanne have also just moved in with him. Why, though, it's never clear - Leah is just a cypher. The people responsible for this drek managed to pull off a miracle with Leah: they created a character that has zero chemistry with Tom Selleck. That miracle is due in large part to the writers' inexplicable hostility to Leah: Her actions are inconsistent, she never gets to have her own personality, and it's clear from the start that her job is to be a plot device. Her actions are dictated by the needs of the writers rather than according to how a real human being might act.It's worse with her daughter, Roxanne, because Roxanne at least has her own subplot. And an infuriating one it is. Was she happy to move to the ranch? Why does she so quickly form such an intense tie with the obnoxious Dulcie? Doesn't she have any other friends? It's obvious that Roxanne's boyfriend is supposed to be a loving and spiritual young person - instead, he came off as a creep. When Roxanne experiences a crisis, he's happy and oblivious to her distress. But then, we're never really sure *what* Roxanne is thinking. At one point she makes a religious declaration, and it's done in such a way as to suggest that she isn't completely sincere, and is only doing out rebellion against her mother, or to try to please her boyfriend. What did that declaration mean, and what effect will it have (besides the obvious one)? If it was sincere, why was it out of the blue? After a second crisis, given every reason to abandon her new faith, does it occur to her to do so? Was she even tempted? Or does that second test make her faith stronger? We never know, and there's no hint that the writers even consider this a question; they are completely uninterested in her as a person. Before and after her conversion, the girl is a plot robot.Time passes. Shattering, life-changing controversies develop and are resolved after many bitter arguments and no doubt many tears. ALL OF IT OFF-CAMERA. We don't get to see any of the controversy between characters, or experience any of the terrible inner conflict that characters must feel within themselves. One moment Selleck is talking to his neighbor about the arguments to come, next moment everything has been settled and he's reporting on the outcome to his ex on the phone. Huh? Time passes. Dulcie becomes even more obviously in need of psychiatric care (which she doesn't get). Stephen and his ex talk regretfully about why their marriage failed, and resolve nothing. Then there's a short-lived emergency involving something on the ranch. The end.Huh?

Stephen Landis (Tom Selleck) lived on a farm in Idaho, but his wife Angela (Wendy Crewson) wanted to live in the city and become a lawyer. So she and their daughter Dulcie (Maggie Grace) left Stephen alone.As the movie opens, Dulcie is 16, wearing too much makeup, and getting a tattoo. She is such a troublemaker her mother believes a summer on her father's farm would do her good. Meanwhile, Stephen's girlfriend Leah (Anna Gunn) wants to move in with him, along with her teenage daughter Roxanne (Tegan Moss). As you might expect, Dulcie causes problems, but she is not the only one. Surprisingly, she and Roxanne become friends, but Roxanne's troubles are not Dulcie's fault.Maggie Grace gives a wonderful performance, as Dulcie goes from delightfully nasty to just nasty to merely delightful. Dulcie is not really that bad once the movie progresses, though she hates the farm and becomes quite depressed. Going back to the city at the end of the summer is not the answer, however.One thing that makes this movie distinctive is its emphasis on Christianity. Stephen's neighbors are among the few real Christians shown on TV, and the term 'born again' is actually used by one character. There are serious moral dilemmas, and the solutions are not perfect.This movie had its ups and downs, and it appeared at one point that all was lost, but things started looking up again.