James Hitchcock The main character in this movie is Michelle, an 18 year old girl who acts as babysitter for Bill and Sally Bartrand, a local well-to-do couple and whose life is turned upside down when Sally, for no apparent reason, commits suicide. Bill asks Michelle to help him look after his children, with whom she has a close bond, and she finds herself spending more and more time with the family. Eventually she and Bill become lovers.Then the question suddenly arises; was Sally's death really a suicide? The police begin to find disturbing new evidence that she was in fact murdered, and there are three possible suspects- Bill, who knew that his wife was having an affair, Sally's lover Paul, who feared that she might be about to end their relationship, and Michelle herself, who is suspected of wanting Sally out of the way so that she can move into Bill's life and become the second Mrs Bartrand.Like a couple of other reviewers I felt that this basic plot- one suspicious death, three suspects all with plausible motives- would have worked better as a "whodunit" type mystery, with a greater emphasis on the police's efforts to solve the crime and the unmasking of the culprit coming as the denouement. Unfortunately, the decision was taken to make this as a standard "girl in peril" type thriller, with Paul dropping out of the picture and Bill trying to frame Michelle for the crime. The whole thing just ends up as an average, or below average, TV movie.The film's greatest asset is the presence of Keri Russell, who makes an attractive and appealing heroine, but none of the other actors make much impression. Overall, however, this is a good example of the sort of film which goes to show why TV movies are often regarded as dull and unadventurous. 4/10

loui-in-stlouis Arian Waring Ash looks pretty fantastic in this flick. It's sort of beneath Keri Russell to do this movie, but at least the director seems to understand that if Keri is looking good, it's not a waste of anyone's time. And indeed, she is looking good here. I'm not even a Keri Russell fan. I found the comment about the dog doing the best acting amusing, but it's not true. Keri's acting is good. Even Keri's kid brother turns in a respectable performance, and he has what, ten lines? If you didn't like Phylicia/Mrs. Cosby's performance, you might ask yourself why so much of her energy and style here is duplicated by Khandi/Ms. Talk Radio six years later in CSI Miami. It's actually too bad that there isn't a longer theater-cut of this thing, because it does capture Ms. Russell in what must be her peak bloom, and that's not at all a bad thing. Shame shame shame on casting directors for failing to see this as an audition for the sidekick, Arian Ash, and not turning her into a big star. But who knows? maybe she was beaten out by Love Hewitt for all the subsequent roles, and that's not a bad thing either. This movie probably got pitched as a "let's take all that sexual energy from the Yale babysitter in Mystic Pizza and take it to its logical conclusion" and hey, that's a pretty good idea. At least i don't feel as dirty at the end as I do whenever I see Blame It On Rio. Incidentally, Demi Moore was the sidekick in that one, and someone DID see that and turn her into a star.

Gluck-3 This was a fairly watchable film. Stephen Collins' character came across as a very nice person, and as with any good mystery, one kept guessing for a while as to "whodunnit," after the other suspect was introduced. (Although once the killer became known, we entered into silly potboiler territory.) I thought Ms. Rashad made for a good detective. And our heroine was very winning. As for the older man-younger woman hook-up that a few reviewers found repulsive, such an outlook is really a curious state of the times. Our extremely youth-oriented society has brainwashed the masses into rejecting practically everyone who is over thirty; it's as though you either must cease to exist as a sexual being once you reach a certain age, or you must only be confined to partnering with one in your own age bracket. Even if there's a young person of legal, consenting age, people have now been trained to believe -- perhaps because the media has sometimes built the sex offender issue to a fever pitch, and some people think they are doing their "moral duty" -- there is something unethical about an age gap between lovers. I just watched the 1937 movie, ALGIERS, where the young and beautiful Hedy Lamarr was engaged to an older ogre of a man who was much more hideous than Stephen Collins, and yet the alliance seemed fairly natural; yes, in this case, she was in it for his money (an allure for our heroine in "The Babysitter's Seduction" as well, although the babysitter did develop genuine feelings for the man), but that was Hedy Lamarr's choice, just as it was Anna Nicole Smith's in real life, years later. Stepping aside from the lure of the sugar daddy, and entering the realm of genuinely "equal" relationships, it's a pity people have become uptight, and regard age as more than a number. Years back, there was more normalcy about accepting older people as regular human beings.

Mulad I totally love Keri Russell, so I had to check this out if only to see her past "indiscretions" vis-à-vis movie scripts. I enjoyed this film and thought she gave a strong performance aside for a few scenes, though it's a TV movie and some fairly obvious flaws have to be expected. Stephen Collins has always come off to me as a sleazebag, so I guess this role worked for me. Still tough to see him on screen next to a 20-year-old. I'd agree that Phylicia Rashad fell flat as a piece of cardboard compared to the other characters. If you enjoy an occasional melodrama complete with yelling at your television, this is an enjoyable guilty pleasure.