Danielle Panabaker gives an amazing performance as Jacey, an obviously unhappy and depressed high schooler who lives with her younger sister, her over-bearing mother, and a young baby, who's night time cries have a bad effect on her. Her face shows all her emotions. You can see how she is torn between wanting to go to the baby, and angry that her mother isn't. As you see later on in the movie, from her younger sister's home-video's, Jacey, in her hospital bed after giving birth, just can't part with her baby boy. It is the most heart-wrenching scene in the whole movie, and watching her, you can just about feel her raw pain and anguish yourself. It is at this moment that her mother, dead-set against her daughter becoming a teen-age mother and not having a normal life, basically makes a deal with her daughter. A deal that leaves her in the depressed state that she is in. The baby will not be put up for adoption, but will be raised by her mother. As her baby. She is to make all decisions, she will be the one to take care of him, and no one can ever know the truth, ever. Jacey is to go along with her life as if nothing had ever happened. It is painfully obvious right from the start that this deal is just not working out for Jacey. She is suffering emotionally. You see flashbacks and photos of the love she had, and lost, when her mother packed-up Jacey and her sister and moved them when she found out about her daughter's pregnancy to a place where no one would know them. Jane Krakowski's character, the teacher who comes to realize that Jacey's brother is really her baby, seems to bring hope to Jacey. Even though she is dying to have a baby herself, she supports Jacey, directs her to a support group for teen-age mothers, and you see Jacey becoming stronger, even bringing the support group to her school to talk about the consequences of teen-age pregnancy and motherhood, and admitting to her classmates that little Charlie is really her son. When she reconnects with her love, Charlie's father, you really start rooting for her to take back her son, and make her own life and future, however hard it may be. Sadly, watching the video her sister made at the hospital, which makes it look as though she was forced into this arrangement by her mother, has the opposite effect on her. Instead of being angry at how her mother manipulated her, she is reminded of the promise she made....the promise that she would not be his mother. Other people say they saw the ending coming all along, but I was blown away. She ends up giving her baby to the teacher who tried to help her see that she did have a choice, and that she could be a teen-age mother. Great performances from everyone in this movie, but Danielle Panabaker's stands out. Her face alone, so sad and vulnerable, shows the emotions she's feeling all through the movie. She doesn't even need to speak and you just see the range of emotions she's going through. I can't wait to see this amazing young actress in future roles. A wonderful movie. If you cry at sad movies, make sure you have a box of tissues for this one.
Review of Mom at Sixteen
