MovieChat Forums > Invisible Child (1999) Discussion > Pathetic

Pathetic

posted 17 years ago by BlondeChick22
8 replies | jump to latest

I know this is fiction, but I thought that Lifetime movies used realistic solutions to problems in their films. The ending was completely BS. The children needed help. The oldest should not have to spend her childhood walking on eggshells to make sure there is always evidence of an imaginary child exsisting to make the mother happy, and the father should not have to spend his marraige doing just that either. Also the little boy (who will obviously need a shrink in a few years) is going to grow up with a skewed sense of reality and therefore not be able to decipher between what is real and what is not. He will also be picked on in school for talking to imaginary people. The parents might not have been abusive physically, but they were mentally. The mother is not right in the head, and rather than get her help they all go along with it so they will not run the risk of her going ballistic or having to be locked up. It is also not fair to the children to have this situation forced on them. The nanny in the beginning was thinking of the childrens' best intrest, but once social services came she chickend out. The makers of the movie decided to solve the problem by having the mother decide that the invisible child died. Problem not solved! What happens when a new imaginary child comes along? Bottom line is, the problem was never adressed or resolved. It was just danced around. I know this was long, but I just watched the movie for the first time, and it was bugging me.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Brklyncandy 17 years ago

I totally agree with you BlondeChick22. I felt I was robbed. I thought the ending was going to be the mom freaking out and taking Maggie to the hospital for her fever while the rest of the family was being interviewed by child welfare and then the mother getting committed because the hospital staff would of thought she was mentally ill and it would of forced the Dad to deal with her problem (sorry for the run on sentence) Horrible movie! Horrible ending! No resolution!

[–] oh_Lilibet 16 years ago

I'm used to the usual crap in Lifetime movies.
But this one blows my mind.

I'm not an actor, but if someone handed me this script I would have died laughing!
Its horrid!

I'm sorry I don't care how much I love my husband if he showed any sign of mental illness, I would take my child and leave! Then I would make sure he got the help he needed! I would be there for him 100%, but I could never subject a child to such.
I grew up with one of my parents in and out of psychiatric care. The hallucinations,delusions and mania that go along with mental illness take tolls on children. That can be very devastating!!
I'm older and was lucky enough to go away to school. My sister was not and I see the toll it has had on her. It's heartbreaking and not a day goes by that I don't feel sickening guilt over not helping my sister. Even through I know I was just a kid at the time!

This movie actually made me uncomfortable.
I guess that sounds odd, I can not really explain it.
I think it stems from seeing a person (I know it is just a movie) who needs help due to a mental condition NOT get any help!
Living in a house like that is hell and was hell for me and my siblings.

There may not have been physical abuse, but their real daughter was suffering!
She was making herself sick so her Mother would not talk about Maggie in public. She had to lie to people to cover for her mother and on and on.
That is abuse!
NO child should have to take care of a parent like that!
Then the husband talks about he thought having "MORE" kids would make it better!

Then we get DCFS GI Jane and the cops at the door, acting like Principal Vernon wanting to crack skulls!
Just when I thought it could not get any better we get the Father totally berating the nanny for seeking help!
Telling her she can not leave, she has to help him fix this!
I would have been on the next d*** train, plane, bus and or skateboard out of that place!

When the Doctor was talking to the slow git Father in the Hospital and said "it could all be in your mind". I almost fell off the chair!
You have NO idea buddy!
You hit that one square on the head, pass GO and collect your prize!!

Who wrote this movie!?
That don't matter, who let this be made into a movie!?

[–] simplemines 16 years ago

Yep, I totally agree. This is just about THE worst movie I've ever seen. Everybody associated with it, in the "story" and in RL, should've been institutionalized.

But with a few small changes, it would've been a decent horror movie. Little Maggie comes from the Twilight Zone and massacres the whole family! Or everybody just kills Mom, because she really WANTED someone to beat the crap out of her. (I would've volunteered to work for free as an extra if I could've beaten up everybody in this movie, but esp. the WRITER.)

Now THAT'S a storyline with potential!

[–] jenifefa 14 years ago

"I thought the ending was going to be the mom freaking out and taking Maggie to the hospital for her fever while the rest of the family was being interviewed by child welfare and then the mother getting committed because the hospital staff would of thought she was mentally ill and it would of forced the Dad to deal with her problem"

That's EXACTLY what I thought would happen. Then they could've flashed forward a few months or a year and shown that the mom was getting better. That could've saved this movie from total idiocy!

What can I say about that suit that hasn't already been said about Afghanistan?

[–] burninblazes 14 years ago

I am still infuriated by this pile! The adult characters pissed me off SO badly, particularly the dad who really must have known better than to do that to his kids, and just didn't care. The mom enraged me too, because even though she was crazy, I got the feeling she knew on some level that she was faking the whole thing. And then the nanny... WTF, she just lost her spine completely. Those poor kids! And the worst thing is that the movie made it seem like somehow it was all a positive thing, inspite of how obvious it was that the parents were unfit.

I had to change the channel during the scene where the little girl was lying to social services. I was rooting for social services and it was just frustrating me so badly. What in the hell they were smoking with this one.

_ _ _

"Why spend your life making someone else's dreams come true?"

-- Ed Wood, the movie

[–] simba122504 14 years ago

The mother should've been put away! I wanted slap the father for not putting her away! Hell, I wanted to slap the nanny and the mother too.

I'm glad Obama won, but I will not jump on the Pro-Choice bandwagon

[–] usersince03 13 years ago

The ending bothered me I thought she was going to end up sectioned but she never did.