Due East (TV Movie 2002) Poster

(2002 TV Movie)

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7/10
Quirky; certainly not "anything goes" (mild spoiler)
dee4j13 August 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I found this movie to be watchable, although Robert Forster as the pregnant teen's dad and Cybill Shepherd as the dad's hot-widow girlfriend (along with his semi-illiterate gas station mechanic) seem to be going for laughs or at least grins at times. The story wanders between the teen, her dad's romance, and divorcing neighbors so much that, after a snack break, I wondered if I was watching the same movie. Kate Capshaw as the neighbor must have demanded more scenes...

Clara Bryant gives a moving, assertive performance as a strong-willed motherless teen. A trivial bit with the small-minded school principal expelling her and then having to reverse himself is wasted as a set-up for a later school-graduation scene where she goes into labor. It was possibly the only dead-serious confrontation in the whole movie.

The ending was not unpredictable, maybe a bit too convenient. But even so, it did not detract from the story itself, which was interesting and not always comfortable.
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5/10
The Baby
AGentry2530 August 2005
Warning: Spoilers
The summary I read earlier was alright but they forgot one thing.Mary Faith chose to give up her baby at the end even though she didn't want to. Mary Faith had wanted to go to college her whole life and with the scholarship (or what ever it was called).After her boyfriend Micheal had died in a motorcycle accident Mary Faith finds out she is pregnant.But, what nobody in the small town knew was that she had a boyfriend or even that ever had a date with anybody.Mary Faith had to quit the choir. Her aunt wanted to know why so she told her that she was going to be to busy but her aunt didn't believe her. So Mary Faith just blurted out that she was pregnant. I think the face on her aunt was so funny.I think they chose the perfect person to play Mary Faith I couldn't imagine anybody else to play her.
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5/10
A girl in a small town
jotix10019 July 2004
This is a "movie of the week" variety presentation. Everything turns out great at the end and everyone is happy, so what's wrong with this picture? Nothing in life is this sweet! Small town people int this community are so understanding of a situation like what Mary Faith encounters, let alone, accept her and never turn their backs to her.

Clara Bryant is good as the young woman who finds herself in the family way and decides to have the child. Robert Forster makes a rare appearance as the father of the pregnant teen ager. Cate Capshaw is also very effective as the woman who befriends Mary Faith. Finally Cybill Shepherd plays the love interest of Robert Foster.

No surprises in this one. We've seen it all before!
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Give it a chance; it is worth watching.
kastellos6 August 2004
Although many in our pseudo-sophisticated society may find this film mundane and disparagingly label it a "chick flik," I found it well acted, directed and worth watching. Of course, it is not "On the Waterfront" or "East of Eden," but it does capture the difficulties associated with single parenthood, meddlesome relatives, divorce, and, of course, the main theme of teenage pregnancy. It attempts to address too many issues and that weakens it, but overall is does a decent enough job.

Although the story takes place in the South, it was filmed in Vancouver, and the charm of Vancouver was captured nicely.

Overall, give it a chance; it's worth watching.
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5/10
An intelligence-insulting cornball
=G=3 June 2002
Straight from chick flick hell into your homes courtesy of Showtime comes this sappy story about a small town (Due East) girl who gets pregnant and then has to deal with...um, well, getting expelled from school and lots of people who want to help her beyond all reason, throwing money at her problem, etc. The films fails to deal with he real problems of unwed-mother-to-be-hood, offers marginally convincing performances, and distills to just so much blathering. Recommended for females only.
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9/10
see it once
MikeyH980910 May 2002
I saw this movie recently one night and liked what I saw. It's a touching story about a young girl played by Clara Bryant who must deal with the trials and tribulations of being a pregnant teenager in the highly-conservative South and try to fix her relationship with her father, in which the two have fallen out of touch since the day her mother died. Bryant is a talented young actress and does a beautiful job of showing the emotions that her character goes through. It's not the type of movie you'll watch over and over again, but it's definitely worth watching at least once. If you like stories of triumph that make you feel good in the end, I recommend seeing this film.
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8/10
Due East
chris_hughes-124 March 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I thought the movie was good and had some well known actors and actresses in it. The main character was a good person who met someone she related to and even though she was to young, the plot made the movie work. The pregnancy sent her father out and he found love. She had the support of the town and the baby's father's parents were given the chance to help raise the only grandchild of their deceased son. I think some readers are to critical. With all that is going on in the world and the ever so wide variety of TV shows, we need movies that still touch home base and are not always made into a movie part 2. One persons tragedy turned in a lot of good changes for the people in Due East.
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quite good for a Lifetime-type movie
KAnnD8628 November 2004
Of all the movies I have seen on the Lifetime channel, this is one of the best. It has a great cast, a lot of recognizable names like Kate Capshaw and Cybill Shepard, and it has a good storyline that never drags. There are a lot of characters, so the movie doesn't just focus on Mary Faith's pregnancy. It shows her friend's situation with her ex-husband and the changes she goes through over the course of the movie. Then there is the relationship her father has with his girlfriend and the grieving parents of the father of her child. Even though it is a little unrealistic that the southern community she lives in would be so understanding and supportive of the choices she makes, the rest of the movie is very realistic - in what the girl goes through and in dialogue. Also, I love the message of this movie. It's not all preachy and doesn't make Mary Faith look like a slut or a typical "unwed mother". I would recommend this movie to anyone who would like to see an above average Lifetime-esque movie.
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Simplistic and contrived but somehow satisfying...
vic-129 December 2003
The story is a setup to blast conservative-religious attitudes toward a pregnant teenager attending high school. It does a good job and it's hard to believe a principal would actually expell a valedictorian girl just because she was pregnant and it made people uncomfortable. They way she was, everybody loved her and she got lots of support and the mean old principal had to back down, especially after she wrote a brilliant letter in the town newspaper that got her lots of support. What was satisfying was the quality of the acting of the girl, who had a quiet simple honesty and intelligence about her. In a pivotal scene the principal blusters "how could such an intelligent girl do something so STUPID?" She answered simply that she didn't PLAN to get pregnant... no surprise. The father of the child died and in the end... well, better not give it away. It's a touching scene.
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Well...
signoradidolore27 November 2004
I'm not really sure where I sit on this one. On one hand, some of the plot was very original. I've never seen a film where the teenage girl got pregnant by a guy who wasn't an asshole. He seemed decent.

It wasn't very well developed though, the story really should have focused more on her relationship with the father of her baby. Instead it kind of trailed off on a little thing about HER dad. That actor sucked by the way. His little "you're pregnant?!" thing was really acted out poorly. He gets an F for his performance.

As a female, I'd have to say it still has me mostly won over...come on, it's starts with them in the bathtub! I'm a girl. Give me a break. I liked it.
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A pathetic view of teen pregnancy.
Cipher-J26 December 2002
This is a very sad story, grievously politicizing small town values and small minded thinking about abortion related matters. Not wanting to be "too" controversial, it merely sets us up with all the obvious options, and then leaves us with an unexpected solution equally as tragic as the others. First we are given a moral dilemma which would be unfortunate for anyone, accept that in this case the girl is the valedictorian of her high school class! How could this happen with the brightest girl in school? Well, because the film wants us to question stereotypes, but then makes of everyone else a strawman, to be knocked down effortlessly. Even the "boy" involved is trivialized into a "James Dean" stereotype, thus making a hypocrisy of the attempt to un-stereotype the girl.

In short, the story is very manipulative and dependent on sentimentality to further its sociological agenda. The deeper issues are merely glossed over in order to promote an "anything goes" mentality, even while giving a nod of recognition to the obvious consequences. The future life for the girl, and the future life for the child, will be immeasurably changed by whatever happens, and in ways hardly advantageous to either. But the film gives a muddled and trivialized focus on the problem of teen pregnancy, which ultimately makes a mockery out of everyone including the girl. It is sophistry at its worst, merging good and bad arguments together until they "all" seem hopelessly wrong.
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