THE RUSSELL GIRL

HEADLINE: ** Pain and Redemption **
TITLE: THE RUSSELL GIRL
Quality: * * * Acceptability: +3
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: None
Violence: None
Sex: None
Nudity: None

RATING: NR
RELEASE: January 27, 2008 on CBS-TV
TIME: 90 minutes
STARRING: Jennifer Ehle, Henry Czerny, Paul Wesley, Tim DeKay, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
DIRECTOR: Jeff Bleckner
PRODUCER: Andrew Gottlieb
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Brent Shields
WRITER: Jill Blotevogel
DISTRIBUTOR: CBS-TV

CONTENT: (BB, C, A, M) Strong biblical worldview where redemption is promoted and bad karma is rejected; no foul language; no violence; no sex or nudity; one scene in a bar and modest drinking, but no drunkenness; no smoking; and, movie deals with several persistent cases of unforgiveness but comes to a good resolution.

GENRE: Drama
INTENDED AUDIENCE: All ages


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Website: www.cbs.com

SUMMARY: THE RUSSELL GIRL is a very clean, redemptive family drama about a young woman haunted by her role in an accident. While promoting forgiveness and restoration, it doesn't directly give glory to God, the one who empowers people to truly love and forgive.

IN BRIEF:

THE RUSSELL GIRL is a television drama about Sarah, a young woman so guilt ridden by an accident when she was a teenager that she believes she is receiving just punishment when she learns that she has leukemia. On receiving the bad news, she takes time off from her job as a retail buyer in Chicago and goes home to visit her parents. She tells no one about her illness. Her parents receive word she has just been accepted to medical school and think that's why she's come home.

THE RUSSELL GIRL takes a great deal of time to unveil the details of what happened in the accident six years ago, but it quickly makes clear the need for redemption. Sarah is not the only person in anguish over the past. Her presence in town throws her neighbor into a mental tailspin. Even her parents argue over whether their response to the accident was proper. The movie poses and rejects the concept of bad karma and encourages forgiveness and reconciliation, but it's like a Norman Rockwell painting without the signature. The work of God is done without clearly giving God the glory.