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Reviews
Please Don't Hit Me, Mom (1981)
For the 1980s, this was a great PSA.
I too watched because this was Sean Astin's earliest films. It is also free to watch from multiple sources. I cannot fault the acting or the lack of seriousness due to the time the movie was made and that it was an educational overview.
The viewer understood the seriousness by the bruising on the child. Given that this was a young child, they did a really good job of showing the signs of abuse that a child may show or the behavior they would exhibit in normal social settings.
I think if this were redone, it may be able to go into today's statistics, the reality, and the positive/negatives of CPS or CFS.
Overall, it was a decent show case. I was kind of concerned for Sean as it looked like he had be hit into that counter fairly hard. I do not know much of the woman who played the mother, but given the bruises, I think she could have gone further with her words, although they did touch on verbal and physical. The only negative was the ending- in no way would confronting an abuser would result in a positive ending without significant help. Drugs and alcohol usually play a part and in personal experience, they do not believe they did anything wrong. If this were a real case, and the family moved to hide, the older son and the mother would not have allowed a stranger or outsider in the home to babysit.
Just some thoughts, but again, good information, accurate behavioral cues that would hold up 40 years later.