Review of Sweet Revenge

Came here on news of Kevin Dobson's death to see how this (TV) movie--one of his few leading bad guy roles--had fared over the years. As some here have noted, this movie is noteworthy for the number of up-and-coming stars (e.g. Alec Baldwin, Helen Hunt) in it. But those who claim it's typical "TV movie" fare that is "predictable" are so off the mark. The time frame of the movie is extremely unusual--to have in effect a prequel whose events echo in the main film is not what television typically does, and certainly not in 1984. And the movie is psychologically interesting in setting up the heroine's complicated (and not entirely admirable) motives for her "revenge." And then, her revenge backfires, but her ultimate goal is nonetheless achieved through a mechanism straight out of classical drama.