Doing Time on Maple Drive

Customer Reviews:

Changed My Life........2007-04-12

In 1992 when this movie was released, I was only 15 years old, and was living very much a secret life in The Country Club world of Broken Arrow, Okla. When the TV spots for this add hit FOX, I knew I had to see it. As I watched in my room, I remembered feeling the same way William McNamara's character felt. I was scared, yet somehow empowered. I reccomend this film to anyone who has ever lived a secret. Doing Time on Maple Drive will forever be one of my FAVORITE films. BUY IT!

Surprisingly heartfelt family drama.......2007-03-07

This film probably would not get 5 stars from me if it was released in the theatre, but for a made for tv movie, from 15 years ago, Doing Time on Maple Drive is hard to beat. The story is intense, realistic, and relevant. The acting is superb. And the directing and cinematography make it much more than another churned out tv drama.

The story centers around a family, that through the mother's and father's influence, seeks to display itself as perfect all the time. As the film begins with the youngest brother coming home with his new bride-to-be, the audience is slowly let in on the secret that maybe that's not what's really happening in this family.

Since I didn't know any of the plot when I watched it, I'd rather not reveal anything that would take away from the slow and honest way that the filmmakers chose to reveal the secrets of each character. Suffice it to say that this is a film about family honesty and pressure.

Jim Carrey is the name and face they put on this film, and because of his box office success and fanbase, how can you blame them, but he's really just a supporting character here, although he does turn in a great performance. And so does everyone else in the cast. Every scene is surprising in its honesty and emotional depth.

If you're checking this out because you're a Jim Carrey fan, like I did, then it's definitely worth it. If you just like made for tv dramas from the 90's then I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better one.

There's not many extras on the DVD. Just a tv spot that must have been reworked from the original, because it only mentions Jim Carrey as the star, and in 1992, I don't think that would have brought many people to their tv set.

Truth Triumphs.......2007-01-14

"DOING TIME ON MAPLE DRIVE"

Truth Triumphs

Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride

Once upon a time a made for TV movie was considerd inferior than a movie you pay to see in a movie theater. Then along came "Doing Time on Maple Drive", a powerful film with a lot to say. It is the kind of movie that hits the viewer hard because it deals with real issue and real values. It looks at the syndrome of the controlling, affluent parents who have children that are afraid of disapproval. And it also has Jim Carrey in a dramatic role.
Psychiatry maintains that there are no family secrets, there are just things that are notspoken about openly and that seems to be the thesis of the film. "Doing Time" makes you sit up and think about your life, your friends, yor family and people. When it premiered in 1992, the movie packed a wallop. Today it may seem a bit contrived but it does make you aware of just how far we have come in terms of tolerance. It is an honest look at the workings of a family and it is made even more real by excellent writing and acting.
Our dysfunctional family in "Maple Drive" is busy thnkng about the upcoming wedding of one of the sons and how years of keeping up appearances has failed and with the failure almost destroys everyone involved. Strangely enough, the most functional member of the family is the alcoholic (brilliantly portrayed by Carrey). He is the only one who can say what is true and what is on his mind.
The gay subplot of the brother Matt was another major issue of the film and it was hadled respectfully and beautifully. Thinking his family was "perfect", Matt felt he had to hide his homosexuality.
What I especially liked about the film was howit managed to draw the audience in and by doing so made us members of the family.
For the gay population of America, the movie had a lot to say and by showing that truth is the optimum way to live a life and it is important for gays to be true to themselves if they want others to acceptthem. "Maple Drive" shows us how important it is to listen--to ourselves and to others.When we listen to ourselves we bring things out into the open and can then find ways to tackle any problems we may have. In the case of the gay son, if he had listened to himself and heard what others waere saying he would have realized that he was perfectly fine.
The makers of the film and the actors in it should be applauded for even tacking a movie of this nature. The honesty presented here wil not soon be forgotten.

Another Lying DVD Description.......2006-12-27

I am so sick of progay movies being described as 'family dramas' that I think there should be a required notice on all progay movies on the DVD cover. This review isn't for those who think gaylife is acceptable. This is a warning to those who find it offensive to stay away from this movie. If they can't be honest with the description of movies they produce, what are they hiding about their lifestyle?

Aptly titled, or "Ordinary People" with a twist.......2006-05-14

Actor Ken Olin tackled directing duties in this 1992 gem of a television movie that elvates family dynfunctionalim to an art form. So tense and raw are the emotions that we actually feel some of the family members are enduring just that - "time" in their own home. The plot is cemented on the pending marriage of the youngest son (William McNamara) to "Full House" alumni Lori Laughlin. But the nupitals hit the skids when the bride-to-be stumbles onto her fiance's "secret:" he's gay, and his upcoming marriage is intended as little more than an obligation to his parents ("Hill Street Blues" veteran James Sikking and the late Bibi Beesch). Exit the potential bride, although she keeps her ex-fiance's "secret" to herself. The disclosure doesn't come until the closeted son drives his car off a road in a suicide attempt and, when the beans are spilled about why the marriage bit the dust and why the son crashed, we learn of this upper middle class family's other dysfunctions: one emotionally shattered and alcoholic son (Jim Carry, in a moving and all-too-rare dramatic performance) who, as one line goes, "drinks himself into oblivion every night," and another son crushed by his wife's secret abortion, done supposedly because the young married's can't "afford" a child. As the parents of a suicidal closeted gay son, another one whose life is going from one drunk to the next night's drunk, and another son whose sense of worth is ravaged, Sikking's character as the father makes us believe the man's gone through life with blinders. Once they're removed, though, Dad makes a valiant effort to begin a fragile healing process. As Mom, however, the late Ms. Beesch makes Mary Tyler Moore's emotionally void mother in "Ordinary People" look like Mother of the Year. We get the sense of this mother as being the warden of the family lockup on Maple Drive, and her hardest pain here is the social embarrassment her son's called-off marriage causes. We get the feeling that she is less a mother and showcases her children as examples of her own imagined achievements. In the end, unlike "Ordinary People," if comparisons are fair, we get no sense of relief for the troubled sons such as was given for the fragile one (Timothy Hutton) of "Ordinary People." We do get a sense of hope, however, that the gay son on Maple Drive might come to some validation with his father's acceptance. No such love from the mother, however. An important social theme unfortunately goes almost unnoted in this film, however: the very real tragedy of young people killing themselves because they're gay (or at least aren't accepted because they're gay). "Doing Time ..." is a worthy project of its type, and it warrants serious viewing. It's so emotionally churning that, by film's end, we actually feel we've finished doing time and have been paroled.

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