Review of Seduction in a Small Town

Spoilers: SEDUCTION is a very good movie that illustrates several compelling themes. First and foremost is the effect of bureaucracy in the State's Child Protection Services. The film makes a very accurate portrayal of the inner office politics involved when the bureaucrats have the power to take children away from families, and engage in personal vendettas. Going on things they are told instead of having solid evidence. Another thing is how parents themselves can hurt their own chances of having their children returned to them. It was real interesting to see how Melissa Gilbert as the mother of the children reacted to their being taken from her, and then the Social Worker would use all of Gilbert's remarks made out of hurt and anger against Gilbert to prove in Court that she was mentally disturbed and dangerous. This is so typical of how the system works that it is sad and pathetic. Another thing which was very well played and developed is how someone (Gilbert) who does not participate in a small town's Church Activities can be made look so bad. Because Gilbert was not a Church-goer and was a vegetarian (which made her seem odd or different from everyone else in town) the town's people were willing to toss her off the island so to speak. Perhaps the most interesting issue of the entire movie was how anonymous tipsters can destroy a family. In this case, it was someone who was asking Gilbert and her husband for money and when they turned her down, she starting making claims of child abuse. These were spiteful claims and are very common, and all it took was the investigator with an over-active imagination to decide the the parents are a danger to their kids. Gilbert out of anger rubbed the Child Services Investigator the wrong way, so the lady worked extra-hard to keep Gilbert from getting kids back. SEDUCTION is one of the best and most realistic movies I've seen in a while. The film was very good in the way it showed Gilbert made some dumb mistakes too, like mouthing off to the Social Services Investigator. Even though Gilbert and her family were clearly the victims of this film, SEDUCTION showed how the people around them who were supposed to be good friends and neighbors were willing to support an injustice due to some isolated incidents and a certain feeling that Gilbert was arrogant to the town's other families and the local Church. They were hearing one side of the story and one sided phone calls. Meanwhile, the town's back-stabbing but friendly tramp was everyone's favorite Church member! She sat up the prayer group and was good at organizing, but the towns people really had no idea what she was organizing. SEDUCTION is a very good movie. All of the characters are fleshed out and they each have powerful motives for their actions, and the performances are convincing. When it gets to the end, you'll see it was Well worth watching.