Family Sins (1987) (TV)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Jerrold Freedman

Writer:

George Rubino (written by)

Release Date:

25 October 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Father Son Relationship | Rabbit | Therapy | Attempted Child Suicide | Adolescent

Cast

James Farentino	...	Gordon Williams
Jill Eikenberry	...	Kate Williams
Andrew Bednarski	...	Keith Williams
Mimi Kuzyk	...	Sara Burke
Brent Spiner	...	Ken McMahon
Michael Durrell	...	Dr. Hamilton
Tom Bower	...	Sheriff
Richard Venture	...	Judge
Thomas Wilson Brown	...	Bryan
Ben Dickson
Michael Halton
Kate Hawley
Yuri Lane
Shane Miner
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Michelle Casey	...	Miss Hayes

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company:

London Films

Gosh...I guess kids are always right!

The family in this TV movie consists of a mother, father, and two boys. The older boy, Bryan, is having a lot of issues and this worthless claptrap would have us believe it is mostly the father's fault.

What does Dad do that's so awful? Well, for starters he wants to teach Bryan to be a better baseball player and show him how to get in front of ground balls. He also wants Bryan to stop lying to him and once in a while actually show some responsibility. The father also has the nerve to get angry when poor, misunderstood Bryan decides to kill a pet rabbit. What a monster that IL' Pops is!!

Does the father abuse Bryan? No. Does he ignore Bryan or spend all his time berating his sensitive son? Um...no. Jill Eikenberry's portrayal of the mother makes you want to shake some sense into her. To dear Mom, no matter what Bryan does it's okay and what is truly haunting is just how many parents feel this way in the real world. All you have to do is support your kids and everything will be great. Sorry, but if that were true and kids were that wise then they would never need any adults around. They could take care of themselves.

Of course, the fact that the parents refuse to get any help for spoiled Bryan leads to an even greater tragedy than a slaughtered bunny. In the end, "Family Sins" lets us know that kids just need lots of love and they will grow up just fine. The funny thing is that this philosophy flies in the face of everything else that occurs in the movie. Letting Bryan get away with worse and worse behavior without intervening brought about a sickening turn of events.

The only reason I don't give this pop psychology vehicle a rating of 1 is that I hope at least a few people out there have watched it and can see beyond the bleeding heart nonsense this promotes. Hopefully they can see that ignoring serious family issues may bring about some horrible ends. 2/10