Lindsay Wagner is Joanne van Bulen, a social worker who is assigned to 6 year old Eric Townsend (Taliesin Jaffe), whom it is believed has been sexually abused.
Wagner wears her trademark long hair in a short style here, and plays Joanne simply. Although it is not a star role per se, Wagner has the sense not to try and upstage Jaffe, and to defer to the greater acting skill of Peter Coyote who plays Eric's father Matt. It's interesting that the movie is executive produced by actress Kate Jackson though Wagner is cast in the female lead role.
The teleplay by Jonathan B Rintels Jr and Norman Strum provides Joanne with a strained relationship with her father, and she projects some of that onto the situation with Eric and Eric's father. An epilogue notes that child testimony against alleged abusers is now accepted via closed circuit television, because of the trauma face to face testimony has on the alleged victim, especially being a young child.
Director Gilbert Cates gives us a child's point of view of the courtroom when Eric enters to give his testimony, and makes Coyote's short-tempered father amusing in his frustration when it is thought that Matt could be an abuser.
Wagner wears her trademark long hair in a short style here, and plays Joanne simply. Although it is not a star role per se, Wagner has the sense not to try and upstage Jaffe, and to defer to the greater acting skill of Peter Coyote who plays Eric's father Matt. It's interesting that the movie is executive produced by actress Kate Jackson though Wagner is cast in the female lead role.
The teleplay by Jonathan B Rintels Jr and Norman Strum provides Joanne with a strained relationship with her father, and she projects some of that onto the situation with Eric and Eric's father. An epilogue notes that child testimony against alleged abusers is now accepted via closed circuit television, because of the trauma face to face testimony has on the alleged victim, especially being a young child.
Director Gilbert Cates gives us a child's point of view of the courtroom when Eric enters to give his testimony, and makes Coyote's short-tempered father amusing in his frustration when it is thought that Matt could be an abuser.
