Sex & the Single Mom (2003) (TV)

Director:

Don McBrearty

Writer (WGA):

Judith Paige Mitchell (written by)

Release Date:

8 September 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

She's doing everything she told her daughter not to do.

Plot:

A single mother has to come to terms with her own hypocrisy when she carries on an out-of-wedlock affair while preaching celibacy to her teen daughter.

Plot Keywords:

Affair | Single Mother | Sex | Teen | Doctor

Cast

Gail O'Grady	...	Jess Gradwell
Grant Show	...	Alex Lofton
Danielle Panabaker	...	Sara Gradwell
Maria Ricossa	...	Deena
Nigel Bennett	...	Nick Gradwell
Joshua Close	...	Tyler
Kyle Schmid	...	Chad
Barbara Gordon	...	Valerie
Shelley Thompson	...	Alyssa
Stacey Smith	...	Emma
Heather Blom	...	Leeza
John Maclaren	...	Harrison
Cindy Sampson	...	April Gradwell
Geordie Brown	...	Frankie
Jamie Bradley	...	Howard

Runtime:

USA:120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-14

Filming Locations:

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Company:

Alexander/Enright & Associates

Goofs:

Continuity: During the dinner scene with Jess and Alex, Jess takes a sip of her wine and places the glass back on the table, which causes the wine to move in the glass. In the next shot, the wine is completely still like the glass was never moved. And then in the next shot, the wine is slowly moving after being placed down.

Quotes:

Jess Gradwell: My heart is broken, but I'm alive, and he did that. And when you're alive, you feel pain. Those are the rules.

Movie Connections:

Followed by More Sex & the Single Mom (2005) (TV)

Enjoyable if not quite believable

I enjoyed this movie though did not quite find the whole thing that believable. I shall admit upfront that I'm not a single parent, a mom, or a woman for that matter, so I'm not expert on these matters. All the same, I think if someone actually chose to have a baby in the circumstances of this film, it would be a tad bit more difficult. And, it was convenient how the father of the baby disappeared around half way through the film. The film definitely had shades of Lifetime utopia.

Still, it was a good film on various levels. Gail O'Grady was very good as the lead, a single working mother (paralegal, going to law school, which I'd hope I could manage as she could!) of a teenager, who meets someone and enjoys the sexual side of the relationship. And, then, suddenly she becomes pregnant. The matter is complicated by an earlier miscarriage. The result, as noted, seemed a bit too good to be true, but the issues were dealt with in a pretty good fashion. O'Grady's skills as an actress made the film.

She also has to deal with her daughter, who is starting to develop sexual feelings of her own, and feels pressure to have sex. This is a quite real life issue, though it was handled a bit too smoothly here (the boy who turns out to be a jerk, predictable, though the ultimate result of her relationship with her friend has a nice twist to it). There is a good scene early on where the daughter examines her sexuality, one that must have made some moms sweat given the potential of the Internet. The daughter was played pretty well by the young actress here.

The film had some predictable "Lifetime touches," but seriously dealt with the issues, and Gail O'Grady was fine in the lead role. Worth catching the next time it's on Lifetime.