Twelve Mile Road (2003 TV Movie) User Reviews

Go Idaho

[wordsmith_57 · 7/10 · 3 January 2009]

As a resident of Idaho, I couldn't resist watching this movie, plus it had Tom Selleck. The storyline was common enough, divorced parents, daughter lives with mom, daughter is a wreck, mom dumps daughter on dad who has a farm, and daughter goes from bad to tolerable. Actually, the plot works, simply because everyone plays the part like real people. It's almost like we stepped into a reality show. We don't get to see every little thing lined out (hmm, we have to think for ourselves? that's different), and there is no great resolution. Life is like that sometimes--most of the time.

This was a pleasant way to spend the evening, but not a terribly memorable movie. Tom played a farmer fairly well, and the rest of the cast filled in the movie all right. The only character that didn't get a chance to develop was Leah, Tom's live-in girlfriend. She wasn't allowed much range, yet the one line she delivers about wishing she hadn't ever met Tom's character felt real and sincere.

If it comes around on TV or if you want a soft free watch from HULU-give this one a try.

Tom Selleck was Great

[whpratt1 · 7/10 · 16 March 2009]

Enjoyed this picture which dealt with a farmer, Stephen Landis, (Tom Selleck) who lives with his wife and his wife's daughter.

It seems that Stephen was married to another woman and they also had a daughter and his ex-wife was having problems with her teenage daughter and decides to send her to her father for a few months during the Summer.

The teenage girl is from the city and on the wild side of life and going on a farm will simply blow her mind completely away, which it does.

There are all kinds of problems that face this family during the Summer and of course, one of the girls becomes pregnant along with cows as well.

Nice drama and Tom Selleck gave an outstanding performance in this film which was photographed in The State of Idaho. Good viewing.

Now THIS was a bad girl; she got nicer

[vchimpanzee · 5 October 2003]

Stephen Landis (Tom Selleck) lived on a farm in Idaho, but his wife Angela (Wendy Crewson) wanted to live in the city and become a lawyer. So she and their daughter Dulcie (Maggie Grace) left Stephen alone.

As the movie opens, Dulcie is 16, wearing too much makeup, and getting a tattoo. She is such a troublemaker her mother believes a summer on her father's farm would do her good. Meanwhile, Stephen's girlfriend Leah (Anna Gunn) wants to move in with him, along with her teenage daughter Roxanne (Tegan Moss). As you might expect, Dulcie causes problems, but she is not the only one. Surprisingly, she and Roxanne become friends, but Roxanne's troubles are not Dulcie's fault.

Maggie Grace gives a wonderful performance, as Dulcie goes from delightfully nasty to just nasty to merely delightful. Dulcie is not really that bad once the movie progresses, though she hates the farm and becomes quite depressed. Going back to the city at the end of the summer is not the answer, however.

One thing that makes this movie distinctive is its emphasis on Christianity. Stephen's neighbors are among the few real Christians shown on TV, and the term 'born again' is actually used by one character. There are serious moral dilemmas, and the solutions are not perfect.

This movie had its ups and downs, and it appeared at one point that all was lost, but things started looking up again.

A Stupid movie

[chrisstallworth · 1/10 · 20 September 2014]

Unrealistic. Because who would put up with a daughter like this, besides and extraordinarily weak father? Who would let their immature, naive 18 yr old daughter get married? Even if she is pregnant? Who would expose the daughter of a gf to his daughter if she was in this shape, and then stick up for her no matter what, and get mad at his GF for telling him the truth about her? And then there is the feeding of the Anti freeze to the poor cow. To me, this is the movie about a really weak father and his damaged daughter. I would have straightened her up, not made excuses for her misbehavior, or expect others to put up with it.

good film

[Mikko_Elo_ · 8/10 · 21 January 2005]

i didn't even know this was made for television...a good small film with good acting. maggie grace and tom selleck have great chemistry as father and daughter, the rest of the cast isn't bad either. the quiet pace fits well with the country atmosphere, and dulcie's journey to finding herself again is believable. the most impressive scene in the movie, for me, was when dulcie ran into the forest, her dad catches her, she screams and her dad asks 'are you crazy?'. that's where the chemistry really clicks, i get the feeling some other actors might have completely ruined the film. 12 mile road is not a very original film, not even particularly thought-provoking or profound, but it's a great pick to watch a film with your girlfriend that both of you can enjoy. recommended unknown film.

If you like uplifting movies AVOID THIS MOVIE!!!

[critic_w · 2/10 · 13 July 2015]

Every movie tells a story or communicates a concept. This movie, unfortunately, tells several sad stories, while it communicates a variety of negative concepts. It marks a low-water mark in Hallmark television. I wish I had never watched it.

Avoiding too many details, The primary male lead (Tom Selleck) is a horrendously poor father, and the back story shows that he pulled the old switcheroo on his family, completely upending their lives. He provides zero parenting, and about as much financial stability. His wife was wrong to leave him ("for better or worse") and the nightmare daughter that results is very poorly matured within the story. She perpetrates a crime on screen for which she is NEVER held accountable. That crime should NOT have been shown. Indicated, suggested, communicated, sure, but shown in detail--in all it's evil--never! Especially because she got away with it! If you love animals it will break your heart. Redemption is important, but repentance is a part of true redemption, and this movie misses that mark a dozen times. One concept they seemed to clearly communicate is "bad things happen to good people." Okay, that's true ... but generally speaking, far more good things happen, and even the "bad" things tend to turn in favor of good people. But not in this movie. I watch Hallmark to avoid this sort of thing. If I want lame melodrama I can tune into Lifetime!

You get the sense that somewhere along the lines this was a really great movie. It probably started out that way on paper. But in the end it's a thoughtless assault disguised as a good movie.

Sequel

[subscribe1faecs-1 · 10/10 · 19 June 2005]

I'd like to see the sequel of that movie. The movie portrays a situation common or frequent enough in life. All the characters play parts that are believable. I'm not including details not to spoil it for others, but the end of this movie is really the beginning of another story. I'd like to see more of that story. I particularly enjoyed the males' dialogue lines in the movie. They portrayed strong men, living strong, respectable values. The men portrayed good role models. The women's lines were all decent as well. Thank you for that. I'd love to be part of a writing team of that genre and caliber. Thanks again.

This movie totally triggered me!

[tracy_sheppard · 1/10 · 10 April 2015]

This is actually my first review on IMDb, and I felt compelled to do it because the movie left such a bad taste in my mouth (pun not intended, but I'll leave it in). This movie was so awful, specifically in one respect--and that is animal cruelty. I kept waiting for the redemption/apology/retribution of the girl (Dulcie), which never came, and finally stopped watching the movie because my dislike of her character was so strong.

What was wrong with her anyway? She had to have been severely abused either mentally or sexually, or something! Why wasn't she in intensive therapy--she was so filled with hatred for apparently no reason: her mother's a successful lawyer who isn't home all the time. Wah. Her parents got divorced. Wah.

Shortly after she arrives at her dad's farm for the summer (for which she is very angry and depressed), she is approached by this sweetie of a cow, who has such loving energy. What does this girl (and believe me, I want to call her a slew of other things) do? Pours antifreeze in the cow's mouth (with the cow faithfully sucking at it), while saying "You want this, you jugheaded freak?" --one of the worst, most disgusting scenes I've ever had to watch. Seriously. It makes me want to do violence towards her.

I kept waiting for her to admit what she did, express dismay or sorrow for it...nope. It even showed her in the barn with the dad, with the did picking up the jug and looking at it, with the girl right there? Any look in her eye to show regret? No.

Stopped watching, and from what I've read in other reviews (unfortunately I didn't read them BEFORE I watched the movie), the girl NEVER admits it or makes up for it in any way. If I had read the reviews beforehand and realized this movie was going to be about a spoiled sociopath, I wouldn't have watched it!

Selleck is good in this made for TV movie.

[TxMike · 27 June 2005]

Tom Selleck is Stephen Landis, living by himself on a farm in Idaho, just barely making it. His estranged wife is Angela (Wendy Crewson) who went back to the city to pursue a career in law. Their daughter Dulcie (Maggie Grace) is 16 and having some social issues, and doesn't get along very well with mom. However, when she visits dad on the farm, she is a different person. This TV movie is about family relationships, very well done, and Selleck is a good choice as the farmer dad.

SPOILERS. The whole family had been on the farm together, had agreed to live there only for a certain time, then go back to the city. When Stephen decoded to stay on the farm, Angela left him and took the daughter, which caused the friction. There is a side story of a lady who stays with Stephen, along with her young daughter, who get pregnant and wants to marry her young boyfriend, but mom wants her to have an abortion. In the end, Stephen and Angela work together in the rain and mud to save a stuck cow, realize they still love each other, and will try again to make it as a family.

Simply awful. A frustrating waste of time that cowardly dodges all the issues it raises

[annzpics · 3/10 · 20 June 2005]

Simply Awful. This is the worst kind of movie - confusing, frustrating, and ultimately, a waste of the actors' talents and the viewers' time. It took talented actors, gave them multiple opportunities to explore complex subjects, and either shrugged them off with a cliché or chickened out and ignored them entirely. As I was watching, it felt like it was a particularly bad adaptation of a much longer story, maybe by someone who completely missed the point of a book and only included the parts that didn't make him uncomfortable. By the end, I didn't really care - I was just furious about the two hours of my life that I'll never get back.

What little plot there is involves the fate of Dulcie, the child of divorced parents. Her behavior is so out of control that her lawyer mother can't handle her, and sends her to live with her rancher father. When we first see Dulcie, she is rude, obnoxious, spoiled and completely unpleasant. But soon she does something so hideous that it's apparent that the girl doesn't need time with Daddy, she needs intensive therapy, immediately. At one point her father asks "Are you crazy" and I wanted to yell "Yes! Are you blind? Get that girl a doctor!" But ultimately, that hideously cruel act is never discovered, and instead the memory of it is left to fester. Maybe 15 years from now we'll get a much more interesting sequel about the psychological wreck this girl has grown into.

Tom Selleck plays the Dad, Stephen; his girlfriend Leah and Leah's teen-aged daughter Roxanne have also just moved in with him. Why, though, it's never clear - Leah is just a cypher. The people responsible for this drek managed to pull off a miracle with Leah: they created a character that has zero chemistry with Tom Selleck. That miracle is due in large part to the writers' inexplicable hostility to Leah: Her actions are inconsistent, she never gets to have her own personality, and it's clear from the start that her job is to be a plot device. Her actions are dictated by the needs of the writers rather than according to how a real human being might act.

It's worse with her daughter, Roxanne, because Roxanne at least has her own subplot. And an infuriating one it is. Was she happy to move to the ranch? Why does she so quickly form such an intense tie with the obnoxious Dulcie? Doesn't she have any other friends? It's obvious that Roxanne's boyfriend is supposed to be a loving and spiritual young person - instead, he came off as a creep. When Roxanne experiences a crisis, he's happy and oblivious to her distress. But then, we're never really sure *what* Roxanne is thinking. At one point she makes a religious declaration, and it's done in such a way as to suggest that she isn't completely sincere, and is only doing out rebellion against her mother, or to try to please her boyfriend. What did that declaration mean, and what effect will it have (besides the obvious one)? If it was sincere, why was it out of the blue? After a second crisis, given every reason to abandon her new faith, does it occur to her to do so? Was she even tempted? Or does that second test make her faith stronger? We never know, and there's no hint that the writers even consider this a question; they are completely uninterested in her as a person. Before and after her conversion, the girl is a plot robot.

Time passes. Shattering, life-changing controversies develop and are resolved after many bitter arguments and no doubt many tears. ALL OF IT OFF-CAMERA. We don't get to see any of the controversy between characters, or experience any of the terrible inner conflict that characters must feel within themselves. One moment Selleck is talking to his neighbor about the arguments to come, next moment everything has been settled and he's reporting on the outcome to his ex on the phone. Huh?

Time passes. Dulcie becomes even more obviously in need of psychiatric care (which she doesn't get). Stephen and his ex talk regretfully about why their marriage failed, and resolve nothing. Then there's a short-lived emergency involving something on the ranch. The end.

Huh?

Divorce doesn't mean a couple stops loving each other.

[preston8 · 10/10 · 19 June 2005]

I thoroughly enjoyed this down-to-earth story of a divorced couple who get together again, love blossoms once more and a family is back together again. The entire cast does a great job in this very touching tale with a good message. I am very pleased that such an appealing film was even considered for production in today's hateful film climate where almost every movie has to have flaming car wrecks, burning buildings, grotesque monsters, space ships and godawful special effects. This film is about real people in real situations that touch one's heart. Let's have more like this. My only objection: Tom Selleck wears a grossly inappropriate monstrous moustache. Shave it off, Tom! And for scenes where you don't have a shirt on, you might shave your chest, too, which looks like an overgrown forest!

Rachel McAdams and Keira Knightley would be SO disappointed in Maggie Grace... :-(

[Carfreak1986 · 1/10 · 2 September 2005]

It was Fathers' Day when I watched this movie on CBS. The day when I went home from church, I read the Sunday newspaper for the week, and found the TV channel section and looked under "Sunday's Best". What happened next? I'm given a short summary on 12 Mile Road. I thought, "Maybe the main character was going to be laid-back". I was wrong. The local newspaper I read, The News & Observer, said that the character was "a wild child with a destructive streak." When I saw the preview while watching Cold Case on TV (the episode had a 1990 murder), two things were wrong with the movie: the troublesome girl, and the setting. The main character did not have a fashion like today's kids on skateboards. Instead, the main character looks as if she got her clothes and cosmetics at Hot Topic (yes, Maggie Grace, I'm talking about YOUR performance in this movie). When I saw the strangely dressed teenager, I thought "PERSONAL FOUL! Did Alex Varkatzas tell her to dress this way?"--I was wrong. Alex Varkatzas had nothing to do with this--and any fans of Maggie Grace would be grossed out had they seen this movie on TV (just look at the way she dresses!). I hate to sound like Jim Cramer and Simon Cowell, but this wasn't Maggie Grace's best work. That was absolutely terrible. My advice: for Maggie Grace, wait until Season 2 of Lost, or wait for the new movie The Fog, also starring Smallville lead Tom Welling. Maggie Grace can do better than this. Congratulations to Tom Selleck for keeping her in line throughout the movie--and for the times where you JUST CAN'T STAND the main character. Sheesh!

I LOVE TOM SELLECK

[margri1234 · 10/10 · 17 March 2019]

THIS WAS THE GREATEST MOVIE I HAD SEEN IN A LONG TIME, I ACTUALLY BOUGHT A COPY OF IT BUT FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON MY MOVIE HAS DISAPPEARED..I HOPE SOMEONE OUT THERE CAN HELP ME FIND ANOTHER COPY,WHICH I WILL PUT UNDER LOCK AND KEY IF I CAN GET ANOTHER COPY! PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP ME,BURN ME A COPY OF YOURS, I WILL GLADLY PAY FOR A COPY

Unbearable.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 17 June 2023]

There's a scene where city girl Maggie Grace (visiting father Tom Selleck in the country goes into a deep pond after saying some genuinely nasty things to a teen boy, and I couldn't resist the temptation to scream "Let her drown!" This comes after she poisons a cow which has to be uthenized because of her angry evil deeds and her tantrum for being left by mother Wendy Crewson so she doesn't have to deal with her rebellious daughter for a summer. Selleck is engaged to neighbor Anna Gunn who has problems with her own teen daughter, so there's lots of high pitched yelling as the two join forces, and we're supposed to believe that kindness and patience are the only ways to deal with this situation.

The beauty of the countryside should be a nice distraction for the unpleasant story, but it isn't because outside of Gunn, none of these characters are really believable or likeable. It's a family drama with a Christian theme, but there is nothing spiritually uplifting about this plotline or the message it tries to present. By half an hour into the film, I desperate wanted this to be over. Selleck seems barely involved, seemingly just there for a country vacation with a paycheck. I've lived in the country and often found the silence to be deafening, but being a viewer of this angry teen movie made me prefer deafness to sound.

Tom Selleck love Cows

[DJAkin · 10/10 · 20 June 2005]

Now THIS is what I call a GOOD MOVIE!! My Melissa and I watched it and absolutely loved it! It was about a man who lived in the country. He had a daughter who was a mess. The daughter's MOM made her move up to her DAD'S farm. Yes, the MOM and DAD are divorced. So, this BEAST of a girl moves up there and feeds one of TOM SELLECKS'S cows ANT FREEZE. That was amazingly cruel. Tom Selleck's character even misses a wedding because he wanted to help a COW become UNSTUCK. That was interesting. I love cows as well, but I mean, come on. There was an unusual cameo by Patch Adams. It's so hard to see that though.

So many good things about this movie. I don't regret watching this TEAR JERKER. In other words, my dame cried.

Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

[gabriellhtj · 10/10 · 14 August 2022]

Made me ponder on life. I could relate to Dulce, honestly... I was just like her when I was younger. This movie hit me deep. It's very well-acted and well-written too, good for a rainy afternoon with the family.