Moment of Truth: Why My Daughter? (1993)

Better Late Then Never

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This film is a very sad and scary true story of an emotionally vulnerable girl who, after her parents divorce and she is ditched by her creep of a high school boyfriend, is taken to a nightclub by a friend where she is soon spotted by a handsome young man who within weeks has her completely under his spell and has her naively moving in with him, where he soon reveals that he doesn't really care about her at all and is merely using her for all he can get as he is actually a violent pimp and the vilest kind of human being. He uses her own woefully misguided devotion to him against her, first pressuring her into becoming a stripper and then forcing her into the dark and dangerous world of prostitution, all the while her desperate mother keeps trying to reach her until it's finally too late and every parent's worst nightmare comes true as she receives some very bad news on the phone one morning, and all that is left for her after that is to try to solve the mystery of and find some kind of justice for her daughter's death. I love the way the movie carries on after the worst possible outcome happens and attempts to salvage a little improbable hope out of a very hopeless story, with the mother actually failing to convict her daughter's boyfriend for what he may have done, but managing to reunite another lost young girl with her own mother who had cut her out of her life. There's definitely no happy ending to be found though and I like that, because it's honest. I thought all of the performances were pretty good, especially Jamie Luner who's character's tragic downward spiral from bright teenager to hard-edged streetwalker is excellently realised. Some people think her character is stupid, and in a way yeah it is a kind of stupidity, but it's a lapse in judgement that sadly many are guilty of everyday. Have you ever had the misfortune of being in a really violently bad relationship, and do you have any idea of how broken down and weak a person can become after being abused and degraded for so long? He manipulated her and broke her spirit and made it seem like he was all that she had, she was just in the wrong place at the right time for someone like him to prey upon her. Plus I think it was a bit of a rebellious thing against her mother, at least at first. She may have had a lot going for her but sometimes kids rebel no matter what they have. It was still all her choices though, and they sent her to her grave. It's strange, I actually felt more sorry for the mother played by Linda Grey, having to pretty much helplessly watch all that happen to her daughter. That final scene where she gives the inner monologue and thinks she sees her daughter among the street girls for a moment is so heartbreaking it makes me want to cry, it's so haunting. Grey is melodramatic at points but so what! The film has something serious to say about a murky subject most folks would prefer to ignore and they get their point across well. This is one of a handful of made for television movies that I've seen and find to be exceptionally moving. Some of the good ones from the early 90s had such true to life heart put into them, not like the vast majority of the bland pretentious garbage that makes up TV movies these days. It's pretty dang far from being average and typical in my opinion! It's true that to some, prostitutes are so far down on the ladder of humanity that they're not even seen as people anymore. But this tries to show that they had to have started out somewhere and that something must have happened to them to make them live such a life, and at one point they were all someone's child. Never give up on your children, hold on for as long as you possibly can, because when they're gone that's it and there's no way to make things right ever again. And if anyone is in a relationship similar to what happens in this, get out before it's too late, you could miss out on so much. Thanks, be good, take care and peace out.

Many people look down on prostitutes, whether it be police officers, adults, teenage kids, but in truth, how many prostitutes out there just started out as normal kids from loving homes, who got drawn into this horrible way to earn a living by charismatic men who turn out to care about nothing but money? Diana, an eighteen-year-old with a bright future, has just broken up with her jerky boyfriend, and meets an older guy at a rave party, A.J. (age 23). It's love at first sight, until her strict mom, Gayle, finds out that they had sex in her house. Diana, furious at her mom's opinion, moves in with A.J. while telling her mom she's at her dad's place, and vice-versa. She becomes a stripper, later a prostitute, and one morning, Gayle gets the worst news of her life... her daughter is dead.With the help of Diana's friend April, a kind and caring police officer and her ex-husband, Gayle tries to uncover who murdered Diana, and why she'd choose to be with A.J., who turned out to be a pimp with many young girls working for him.Why My Daughter? deserves better reviews. Unlike the usually cliché topics in Lifetime Movies (teen pregnancy, cutting, anorexia, etc.) Why My Daughter? addresses an issue most people don't want to think about. While solving Diana's murder, Gayle also learns that the world of prostitution is full of sleazy people, but also decent people just trying to make money in a harsh environment. April, Diana's stripper friend, with the help of Gayle is reunited with her own mom. Gayle also meets Charlie, the owner of a strip club who turns out to care a lot that Diana was murdered and offers to testify against A.J. (I don't think I'll be able to watch The Secret World of Alex Mack again though without thinking that Lars, same actor, is a chemical engineer by day, strip club owner by night). The soundtrack fit the movie very well, the acting was overall really good and it raises awareness of an issue that, despite the film's release date, it still on the rise today. It's an amazing and thought-provoking film, definitely worth seeing.

I liked this show when aired on TV and was familiar with case since went to school with the gal. Wish was on DVD but doesn't seem to have been released. Sad part about this is that after something like 30 years Portland hasn't changed with a serial child rapist as our ex Govenor and a mayor who the people refused to recall twice who groomed and had sex with a 17 boy in city hall bathroom. Portland has been listed and was show on Diane Sawyers program back in October 2010 as the number one city in the US for child sex slave trade and its not abating when you have the powers that be that enjoy it and the citizenry who love their illegals and drugs and "Keeping Portland Weird" to want child sex to change in this city. Sad commentary to a movie that tried to change that.

Gayle Moffitt (Evans) has her world torn apart when her daughter Diana takes up with a manipulative and ruthless man who seduces her into a world of prostitution. Gayle fails to make her daughter see sense and then the police find Diana murdered. Totally frustrated by the lack of co-operation by the police Gayle decides to seek out the killer herself.