Twisted Desire (1996) (TV)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Craig R. Baxley

Writers (WGA):

Carey Hayes (written by) &
Chad Hayes (written by)

Release Date:

13 May 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Nothing can come between a girl and her true love... except maybe murder.

Plot:

A teenage girl convinces a young, love-struck ex-con that the only way they can be together is to do away with her domineering parents...

Plot Keywords:

Court Trial | What Happened To Epilogue | Based On True Story

Cast

Melissa Joan Hart	...	Jennifer Stanton
Daniel Baldwin	...	William Stanton
Jeremy Jordan	...	Nick Ryan
Meadow Sisto	...	Karen Winkler
Kurt Fuller	...	Det. Becker
David Lascher	...	Brad
Eric Laneuville	...	Det. Daniels
Collin Wilcox Paxton	...	Rose Stanton
Isabella Hofmann	...	Susan Stanton
Rasool J'Han	...	Bobbi
Deborah Hobart	...	Trish Winkler
Edith Ivey	...	Marjorie Ryan
Joe Inscoe	...	State Prosecutor
Andrew Masset	...	Attorney Patrick Felks
Erica Galadon	...	Emma

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Canada:14A

Filming Locations:

Charleston, South Carolina, USA

Company:

The Polone-Winer Company

Soundtrack:

Other Side Of The River

Bad girl not bad enough

This is a mediocre, made-for-TV diversion, in which Melissa Joan Hart is miscast as an evil, psychopathic teen. She tried, but evil she is not. Her engaging and charismatic personality is much better suited to her ironic role as Sabrina, the teenaged witch, on ABC Friday nights, although at twenty-three she should be getting her PhD instead of playing a high school girl, witch or otherwise. I think the original idea they had for her as a newspaper reporter would have worked. At least she wouldn't have been instantly too old for the role. Incidentally, I understand she auditioned for the title role in Adrian Lyne's "Lolita," losing out to Dominique Swain. Funny thing about that: Hart really is the Lolita type, so much so that at the age she started playing Clarissa (perhaps 14), she would have been perfect for Nabokov's enchanter. However, by the time Lyne got around to casting for his film, she was way past sweet sixteen, and much more a young woman than a nymphet.

Had they shown her smashing that car window with a baseball bat, I might have believed this movie a little. And they could have made her a tiny bit slutty, which would have been consistent with her character. I had the sense that her mother was watching every detail of the production and didn't want Melissa to look bad, even though the character she was portraying was very bad indeed.