Tv movie or motion picture?

I think it was intended for theatrical release, for the reason you described, but had a very limited release and Lifetime picked it up.

I Tivo'd it when LMN aired it a few weeks ago, and am halfway through it right now. Like I said in another thread, he was one of my high school classmates, although we had over 500 in our class and I never met him or even heard of him until after his death, but did know his sister who was a year older.