Double Mommy (2016) Reviews

• Another Lifetime melodrama

  mgconlan-12017-03-19

  After "Mommy's Little Boy" Lifetime showed another "premiere" called "Double Mommy," which like the earlier film is also a follow-up to a previous Lifetime hit, "Double Daddy" — in which a young man impregnates two women, his regular girlfriend and a rich bitch who drugged him and essentially raped him, on the same night and had to deal with both babies. "Double Mommy has at least one creative behind-the-scenes person in common with Double Daddy," screenwriter Barbara Kymlicka. It's directed by Doug Campbell and one of the credited producers is Ken Sanders, and as you might expect from those credits it takes place at least around, if not definitively in, the "Whittendale universe" — Whittendale University being the college the young high-schoolers in the dramatis personae aspire to attend, though as Charles pointed out when he arrived home midway through the movie, given that most of the films in the Whittendale universe have depicted Whittendale as a place whose women students all seem to be selling their bodies as prostitutes or mistresses to afford the school's tuition, they're probably better off not getting in there. The leading character who gets doubly pregnant is Jessica "Jess" Bell (Morgan Obenreder), whose boyfriend Ryan (Griffin Freeman) deserted her for the summer to take an internship in Sacramento (the Whittendale universe films have been ambiguous as to just where Whittendale is; early on it seemed to be back East — Vermont, maybe — but later films in the series took place definitively in California and I got the impression that "Whittendale" really means Stanford) and left her with the attentions of Brent Davick (Mark Grossman), the hottest guy in the movie and therefore, according to Lifetime's usual iconography, its principal villain. Brent has befriended Jess and hung out with her throughout the summer, but being a teenage male (and especially a teenage male on Lifetime!) he wants more than that, and when he makes an advance towards her and she says no, he's grimly determined to have his way with her whether she wants to or not. So he offers her a cola which he's spiked with a date-rape drug — since Brent's dad is the CEO of a pharmaceutical company he had no trouble obtaining it — and he parks his SUV in front of some stadium lights on campus and tells her, "No one ever says no to me," before he has his wicked way with her and she passes out completely. Next thing she knows she's in her bed at home, only her pants are undone and her leg has a bruise on it. She washes herself and hears someone at her door — and of course it's Ryan, back from his Sacramento internship and ready to resume their relationship, particularly its sexual component, then and there. She ends up this bizarre day in her life carrying twins, one male and one female, and two and one-half months later — the earliest you can have this done — she has DNA drawn from her fetuses and learns that they have different fathers: one of the babies is Ryan's but the other is … well, we know it's Brent, and the Bells manage to get the police to order him to submit to a DNA test that proves it. But Brent is able to weasel out of the rape charge against him by claiming that Jess had consensual sex with him and intimidating virtually all of the students who were at the party into saying that Jess was "all over" him and clearly was hot for him. At times "Double Mommy" plays as if Kymlicka was aware her movie was going to be shown right after one of Christine Conradt's and she wanted to make sure she could write something even more insanely melodramatic than the Old Mistress — though she lacks Conradt's skill (or inclination) in creating complex and morally ambiguous characters. Instead "Double Mommy" comes off as a work created more to exploit a provocative title than to tell us anything new (or even not so new) about the human condition, and though I liked the social commentary about how the 1 percent think they can get away with anything and their money can always buy their way out of disastrous or downright evil actions for which the rest of us would pay big-time, other Lifetime movies (can you say "Restless Virgins"?) have done this considerably better.

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• Not as icky as it sounds

  phd_travel2017-07-27

  Sounds icky at first - a girl gets pregnant with twins one fathered by her boyfriend and one by his best friend who drugged and raped her. Yes it's possible. But the rapist family is rich and he wants to get rid of the baby. Things are quite exciting actually and it's fairly watchable. The casting is a little confusing because the boyfriend and the rapist look a bit alike - should have chosen more different looking actors. The conclusion is quite neat so makes it worth a watch.

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• The Issue of Becoming A Rape Victim Was Set Aside

  Desertman842017-04-29

  Beauteous young actress Morgan Obenreder stars as the High School student Jessica Ball who was raped by his boyfriend Ryan's bestfriend Brent after getting drugged which resulted in one of her twins getting fathered by the rapist this Lifetime TV movie entitled "Double Mommy".Kate Jackson's co-star at the former TV show "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" as well as the Melissa Gilbert's former husband Bruce Boxleitner co-stars as Scott who happens to be the father of Brent who tries to do every means possible - legal and illegal - to help his son go through this scandal. Evidently,rape becomes the theme of this TV movie.But unfortunately,we are treated to a melodrama instead especially with different subplots on how on Jessica wants to bring justice to the harm caused by Brent to her as well as how Jessica's parents provided support for their impregnated daughter.That also included on how the love between Jessica and Ryan became stronger during a break-up and the support he has given to her girlfriend amidst all events that have unfolded.But nevertheless,it did not escape predictability as the viewer was well aware that Brent is going to be brought to justice at the end as Jessica and her family tried to make a lot of noise about the rape incident and how they overcame Scott,who tried to buy his son out of the situation. Too bad that when all these was unfolding,the issue of rape was somewhat set aside.This included on how Jessica never felt any trauma nor hurt from the incident that happened to her considering I found her amusing of somewhat "being proud" of getting raped in trying to bring down and expose Ryan.The transition from being a victim especially after she found out that she was taken advantaged of into becoming a fighter was missing. The conclusion brought a lot of how much melodramatic it has become especially when Scott loses his job and gets killed as well as Brent was trying to kill Jessica which normally happens in a Lifetime TV movie wherein the villain pursues and tries to kill the protagonist.Overall,it was definitely your typical Lifetime TV movie.

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• ***1/2

  edwagreen2017-03-29

  A young woman is impregnated via two guys and the second one had her drugged before he forced himself on her. This well done story is basically how the guy with his wealthy family thinks that he can buy himself out of this predicament, only to see that when he is discovered to be the culprit, none of his apparent wealth and family influence can help him. In fact, he goes beyond the misery he caused and murders to quiet those who would expose him. Nice to see Bruce Boxleitner from the old days of television's "Scarecrow and Mrs. King," in this movie. Older of course, he reluctantly aids his no good son. The first guy, Ryan, who impregnated her, was the true love of her life and is willing to raise the other child. A good film depicting societal mores in such a situation.

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