I found the film very absorbing, but if you're looking for Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour," this isn't it.
The fault doesn't lie with the actors or production qualities or the director: I think it's mostly that the script is a bit predictable, and not terribly daring: there are clear-cut good guys and bad guys motivated, on the one hand, by goodness and benevolence, and, on the other, by unspeakable evil and malice.
That is not suggest it's a waste of time: just that the screenplay struck me as too tame and too safe, instead of straying into more dangerous territory, raising tougher questions, and not resolving everything in the manner of (as I've seen others on IMDb saying, justifiably) of a T.V. "Movie of the Week." There are good, emotional scenes and quarrels, which will draw you in, however, performed with honesty and skill by a very fine cast.
The fault doesn't lie with the actors or production qualities or the director: I think it's mostly that the script is a bit predictable, and not terribly daring: there are clear-cut good guys and bad guys motivated, on the one hand, by goodness and benevolence, and, on the other, by unspeakable evil and malice.
That is not suggest it's a waste of time: just that the screenplay struck me as too tame and too safe, instead of straying into more dangerous territory, raising tougher questions, and not resolving everything in the manner of (as I've seen others on IMDb saying, justifiably) of a T.V. "Movie of the Week." There are good, emotional scenes and quarrels, which will draw you in, however, performed with honesty and skill by a very fine cast.