Let's be realistic.

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

13-year-old girl from an upper-middle class home, growing out of her 'daddy's girl' stage and tentatively starting to date, is struggling with a dark secret and finally lays on a bombshell on her mother: she's been the target of molestation by her own father. TV-movie produced with a high level of filmmaking competency (if not craft). The family at the center of this story, as written, isn't very believable, even with Emmy-nominated Glenn Close and Ted Danson cast as the parents; their stilted-bickering interactions both before and after Amelia's revelation aren't convincing. This is the kind of movie where the wife counts the number of weeks her husband hasn't made love to her, leading to her feeling like a scorned woman after digesting her daughter's story. The Emmy-winning teleplay by William Hanley fails, really, to give us a strong, sound foundation in which to build the central drama, while the young heroine (Emmy-winner Roxana Zal) internalizes her pain, becoming a somewhat somnambulant victim.

Congratulations DON'T BREATHE (2016), you are no longer the movie that pisses me off the most. That honor goes to a 1984 award- winning TV movie starring Ted Danson and Glenn Close. It's a film called SOMETHING ABOUT AMELIA and it's a fictionalized account about a father molesting his daughter.So, what did SOMETHING ABOUT AMELIA (1984) do that was so reprehensible, you ask. Where do I begin?Thirteen-year-old Amelia (Roxana Zal) has been keeping a secret since age eleven. Her father, Steven (Ted Danson) has been raping her. Amelia blames herself and worries that Steven will start molesting her younger sister Beth (Melissa Francis). When Amelia's grades begin to slip the guidance counselor Mrs. Hall (Jane Kaczmarek) suspects something is wrong. She brings Amelia in her office and after a bit of reassurance, Amelia discloses the truth. Amelia's mother Gail (Glenn Close) rushes home to find out what Amelia's emergency is. Mrs. Hall stands by the young girl's side. Gail reacts beyond poorly accusing Amelia of making it up. Social Services take Amelia out of the house temporarily. When Steven is told about Amelia's admission, he lies and Gail stands by his side. It takes her days to believe her daughter. Steven eventually admits guilt too. So why am I angry? First, Steven is made out to be a victim. The family therapist Farley (Kevin Conway) tells Gail that everyone thinks about incest and that no one knows what makes people cross the line. At that point, there should have been a scene where Gail fires Farley…..but no. Farley "Informs" Gail that men who commit incest do so because there's something missing in the marriage. The men do it because they want love and affection they're not getting from their wives. The men are said to do it because the women are trying to take control in the marriage. Now, this guy isn't made out to be some nut-job perv quack. This supposedly is the real reason. Steven molested his daughter because there was no spark left in their marriage, he fought with his wife and Gail got a job which made him look like a bad provider. Does Gail at least leave Steven? No. She gets mad at him for about thirty seconds, but Farley believes the family can be completely reunited! In fact, Steven doesn't have to serve any jail time. He just needs therapy as does the whole family. In the end, we see Amelia who has come to terms with everything forgive her father when she remembers being little and him singing her a lullaby. I thought writing this review would make me less furious. It hasn't. This was a TV movie! How many lives did this screw up?!? If you need something positive about this, the acting was good and Jane Kaczmarek hasn't aged since 1983! Even the police look at incest and molestation differently. At one point, Steven is told that if he wasn't Amelia's father he'd be in handcuffs. Gail is jealous and angry at Amelia for not telling Steven no because he didn't really force himself on her. It's rape! She was 11! It was her father! What universe was this film made in?!? There's just too much insanity in this movie. Gail starts to make love with Steven after Amelia is out of the house in essentially an orphanage. She stops and turns over, but her daughter just accused her husband of raping her and Gail was going to screw him! When Amelia does come home, Gail screams at her asking "Why didn't you stop this?" Scumbag Steven is in a hotel room watching Shirley Temple dancing with some guy and rather than have it be a scene like "what a creep" the decision was made to make Steven sympathetic and sad! To hell with Steven! He's a child molesting scumbag. The third act is essentially a romance where Gail and Steven work on communicating and reconnecting. Steven eventually is brought into the psychiatrist's office to talk to Amelia and tell her them "being together" was all his fault and not hers. The word RAPE isn't used once. The word MOLESTATION isn't used once. The whole thing is constantly referred to as sex. Did a child molester right this? After watching this abomination, I thought to myself, "wow, this had to get some horrible backlash!" No. It won 9 awards (2 of which were Golden Globes) and was nominated for more than that. I thought, in retrospect, those that created this movie would feel like complete scum. No! In fact, Executive Producer, Leonard Goldberg is proud of it and sees it as a highlight of his career. Seriously, the movie should not be shown to children and should not air on TV at all. The message is essentially, if you are molested and tell, your mom will be angry with you and the molester will be invited back in the house. I seriously hope Glenn Close and Ted Danson regret their participation in the film. I can handle a disturbing movie, but this spits in the face of incest survivors and rape victims. There isn't a rating that exists which is low enough to give this film.

There are 2 main ways to handle a case of incest. One is to place the offender in jail, and let him rot there for a while. The other method is shown in this one-of-a-kind movie: Counseling for everyone in the family.Some of the counseling sessions with the father are emotionally overwhelming to me (he slowly but surely admits the "crime" ... and works through his assorted feelings about the incest). Amelia has to work through various problems with her therapist (including some jealousy from her mother, and confusion and anger from her sister).This movie left me bleeding (emotionally) for weeks after. It was SO true, I felt like I knew the family.There (truly) is nothing to compare this movie to.

The television scene in the 80's had some of their defining moments, such as "The Day After" and "An Early Frost," but there was not a more powerful film as "Something About Amelia." The Bennett's, from all appearances, look like the typical American family. However, things are not what is seems: Amelia (A strong performance by Roxanne Zal) has been sexually abused by her father, Steven(Ted Danson) for a long time. It's not until she notices that her sister is about to become his next victim that Amelia lets out her secret. The effects are devastating, from the feelings of anger and betrayal from the mother, Gail(Glenn Close) , to the denials from the very sister she was trying to protect. Gail is at first protective of her husband, but her position is painfully clear: She must protect her daughter from her own husband, who not only molested their daughter, but have betrayed her in the process. There are 2 scenes to note in the film: When Gail confronts her husband about what he has done to the family and her, it is so full of emotion that you can feel the pain from every word that Gail spits at him. Finally, when Steven talks to Amelia during a therapy session, you see the conflict within Amelia: this is her father, the authority figure of the home who has betrayed her in the most vile way.There is no resolution in the film. There is no way that such an incident can be resolved, because the damage of the incident is forever, and nothing can ever be the same. Amelia can never fully heal from what was done to her. Her sister, Beth, must live with the fact that her father may have had plans to molest her. Gail must live with the betrayal that her husband had committed, and Steven must live with the damage that he created.One of the first films to deal with incest, it covers the process of how this issue is dealt with, from the involvement of law enforcement, to the therapy process. The performances are raw, especially Ted Danson, who is MANY degrees from Sam Malone on "Cheers," and Roxanne Zal, who won a deserved Emmy for her performance.