The Secret Life of Zoey (2002)

Simply Perfect

Pretty Good

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Julia Whelan is a model teenager. She volunteers in an old folks' home, gets straight A's in school, and has a great relationship with both her divorced parents, Mia Farrow and Cliff De Young. But that's just on the surface. Underneath it all, Julia sneaks out to go to parties, shoplifts, goes out with a bad boy, and takes drugs. Hence the title of this Lifetime TV movie.The Secret Life of Zoey is a pretty typical TV movie, rather like the "disease of the week" movies in the 1990s. My favorite part was Andrew McCarthy playing Julia's counselor. He used a great combination of tough love and compassion, making him the most realistic character. If you particularly like mild movies about teenage drug abuse, you can pop this one in on a Saturday with your book club group. There's nothing really offensive in it; it feels like the type of film high schools show kids to scare them away from doing drugs.

***SPOILERS*** Straightforward and honest depiction of how drugs can destroy not only those that use them but their friends and family members as well.The story of Zoey Carter, Julian Whelan, is all too common in what we see in the youth of today when they stray off the right path and fall into the hell that's knows as drug and alcohol addiction. Being a grad A student and working part time as a volunteer at a local nursing home Zoey got a little too friendly with fellow high-school student Ron, Michael Conistine, who just happened to be the main drug pusher in the school. With Zoey getting hooked on both legal and illegal drugs it was off the the races where the finish line was a one way trip to the hospital emergency ward that's if your lucky! Most junkies like Zoey don't even have that good of a chance to stay alive after overdosing by going straight to the hospital morgue.It took a while for Zoey's mom Marcia Carter, Mia Farrow, to realize her daughter was a cold stone junkie but by then it was almost too late for her to do anything about it. Together with her estrange husband Larry, Cliff De Young, all Marcia could hope for was that Zoey would somehow kick the habit by herself which in fact got worse as time went on. The final kicker was when a grounded Zoey took out her mom's car for a spin one evening and got herself lost in a local drug den! After downing about two dozen uppers and downers and washing them down with booze she ended up in the hospital emergency room close to death!Sent to dry out at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center didn't help much either with Zoey not responding to treatment and not listening to her kind and understanding appointed social worker Mike Harper, Andrew McCarthy, in feeling that her life, or whatever is left of it, was over anyway so why try to save it!***SPOILERS*** It was in fact the news that her good friend "Old Smoky", Walter Marsh, an 85 year old patient at the nursing home that Zoey did volunteer worked at passed away from a fatal heart attack that finally woke her up! The fact that Zoey wasn't there for him in his las moments on earth that really turned her around in how both selfish and destructive she became because of her drug addition! Getting back on track Zoey finally did what she had to do in trying to kick the habit but she knew that the road to recovery would be a long and hard one. And most of all it's up to her and her alone to make all that possible!

Julia Whalen as Zooey, a young girl who gets caught up in drugs. ..."everyone has them, Mom"..., she tells her mother (Mia Farrow) they help me study, then when I need to crash, after taking an exam.What is good about this film is it does not sugar-coat or deny the reality. Zooey ends up in the ER; her mother finally realizes the extent of her daughter's problem.Cliff DeYoung, a familiar face as the father, who is ineffectual. His daughter stays over one night, when he has some anonymous girlfriend over. He and Farrow are divorced; he tries to placate his daughter. After being grounded without driving or cell phone privileges, her father buys her a new cell phone she can use it in her car.This film adequately shows the predicament parents have today; while not wanting to be the "bad guy" some parents may overcompensate and give the kid whatever he or she wants; this is no solution either.Julia Whelan is very good as Zooey, not overplayed; just another kid wanting to fit in with friends, at first. This film shows that this is a very serious problem, with no easy solutions. 8/10.

This story has been done again and again. Troubled teen gets depressed, takes drugs, goes into rehab, recovers... blah blah. The mother in film is pretty unbelievable, and a hypocrite as well. How can she get mad at her daughter for taking drugs when she does it herself?? The dad was pathetic, he cared more about himself than his ex wife and daughter. The I saw so many mistakes in continuity in the whole 30 minutes I saw of it and it was enough to put me off! Did anyone else notice how when she vomited and passed out she had spew all over her mouth and when she was passed out in the car she was totally clean? And how on earth did she get from the hospital into rehab so fast??? The emergency people in the hospital were pretty stupid, who on earth just shakes someone and asks if they can hear them?? Didn't they think her mom had already triedthat??? DUH. Don't see this film unless you like really crappy movies.