One of the better made for TV movies out there, 'A Friend to Die For' (or 'Death of a Cheerleader' as it's known in the UK) is an incredibly touching film, with a brilliant central performance from the young Kellie Martin as the teenage girl driven to murder by frustration and torment, but it suffers in that it offers little sympathy for her victim.
Based on a true story which makes it even more poignant, Angela Del Vecchio is a sweet, pretty and lovable girl who transfers from a Catholic school to a regular one and sets out to make friends with the popular crowd while striving to achieve as much as possible. The only problem is that another girl called Stacy not only keeps beating her at everything, but also mocks Angela and treats her like dirt, despite her best efforts to befriend her. And it is here that the film's main fault arises. Angela vents her frustration one night by stabbing Stacy to death, but at no point in the film does any sympathy arise for the murdered girl.
Angela on the other hand is an incredibly sympathetic character. She is tormented by her failures and perceived inadequacy in the first half and consumed by guilt and depression in the second. Throughout the entire running time, you just want to put your arms round the girl and give her a big hug and the scene where she finally confesses her crime to her mother is absolutely heartbreaking. Unfortunately, Stacy is considerably more one-dimensional and never presented as anything but a self-centred, arrogant ego-maniac, which jars painfully against the depth given to Angela's character. Given that she is based on a girl who was genuinely murdered in real-life, it seems pretty unsympathetic that while we feel plenty of empathy for her loved ones following the tragic event, the general feeling the movie generates is that the dumb idiot got what she deserved.
That said, the film still has much to recommend it. The central message of the extremes that children can reach if they take school too seriously is handled well, as is an issue raised in the second half about media sensationalism regarding the murder. Alongside this, Kellie Martin is simply phenomenal as Angela and her insecurities will have universal appeal to teenagers across the globe. It's just a shame that the treatment of the primary subject matter was not quite so black and white.
Based on a true story which makes it even more poignant, Angela Del Vecchio is a sweet, pretty and lovable girl who transfers from a Catholic school to a regular one and sets out to make friends with the popular crowd while striving to achieve as much as possible. The only problem is that another girl called Stacy not only keeps beating her at everything, but also mocks Angela and treats her like dirt, despite her best efforts to befriend her. And it is here that the film's main fault arises. Angela vents her frustration one night by stabbing Stacy to death, but at no point in the film does any sympathy arise for the murdered girl.
Angela on the other hand is an incredibly sympathetic character. She is tormented by her failures and perceived inadequacy in the first half and consumed by guilt and depression in the second. Throughout the entire running time, you just want to put your arms round the girl and give her a big hug and the scene where she finally confesses her crime to her mother is absolutely heartbreaking. Unfortunately, Stacy is considerably more one-dimensional and never presented as anything but a self-centred, arrogant ego-maniac, which jars painfully against the depth given to Angela's character. Given that she is based on a girl who was genuinely murdered in real-life, it seems pretty unsympathetic that while we feel plenty of empathy for her loved ones following the tragic event, the general feeling the movie generates is that the dumb idiot got what she deserved.
That said, the film still has much to recommend it. The central message of the extremes that children can reach if they take school too seriously is handled well, as is an issue raised in the second half about media sensationalism regarding the murder. Alongside this, Kellie Martin is simply phenomenal as Angela and her insecurities will have universal appeal to teenagers across the globe. It's just a shame that the treatment of the primary subject matter was not quite so black and white.