Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

HotToastyRag Julia Whelan is a model teenager. She volunteers in an old folks' home, gets straight A's in school, and has a great relationship with both her divorced parents, Mia Farrow and Cliff De Young. But that's just on the surface. Underneath it all, Julia sneaks out to go to parties, shoplifts, goes out with a bad boy, and takes drugs. Hence the title of this Lifetime TV movie.The Secret Life of Zoey is a pretty typical TV movie, rather like the "disease of the week" movies in the 1990s. My favorite part was Andrew McCarthy playing Julia's counselor. He used a great combination of tough love and compassion, making him the most realistic character. If you particularly like mild movies about teenage drug abuse, you can pop this one in on a Saturday with your book club group. There's nothing really offensive in it; it feels like the type of film high schools show kids to scare them away from doing drugs.

MarieGabrielle Julia Whalen as Zooey, a young girl who gets caught up in drugs. ..."everyone has them, Mom"..., she tells her mother (Mia Farrow) they help me study, then when I need to crash, after taking an exam.What is good about this film is it does not sugar-coat or deny the reality. Zooey ends up in the ER; her mother finally realizes the extent of her daughter's problem.Cliff DeYoung, a familiar face as the father, who is ineffectual. His daughter stays over one night, when he has some anonymous girlfriend over. He and Farrow are divorced; he tries to placate his daughter. After being grounded without driving or cell phone privileges, her father buys her a new cell phone she can use it in her car.This film adequately shows the predicament parents have today; while not wanting to be the "bad guy" some parents may overcompensate and give the kid whatever he or she wants; this is no solution either.Julia Whelan is very good as Zooey, not overplayed; just another kid wanting to fit in with friends, at first. This film shows that this is a very serious problem, with no easy solutions. 8/10.

Claudio Carvalho Zoey Carter (Julia Whelan) is the beloved sixteen years old daughter of Marcia Carter (Mia Farrow), who has recently divorced from her husband Larry Carter (Cliff De Young). Zoey feels too much the separation of her parents, and has Kayla (Katharine Isabelle) as her best friend. While temporarily working in the hairdresser saloon of her friend Mimi (Caroline Aaron), Marcia is trying to find a job to support her family. She is very proud of her daughter, who seems to be a very responsible teenager, since she is a good student, she has her own car and she voluntarily works in an old folk's home. However, Zoey has a hidden personality, and she eventually uses drugs, stealing pills and money from her parents to buy weed. When Zoey meets the handsome student and drug dealer Ron (Michael Coristine), she is induced by him to shoplift to buy heavy drugs with him. She fails in her trial, and the guy gives free drugs to addict her. When she has an OD, she is sent to a psychiatric treatment with Dr. Mike Harper (Andrew McCarthy). "The Secret Life of Zoey" is a good and very real dramatic story that may happen with teenagers in any family. The cast is very well selected, with Mia Farrow excellent as usual, in the role of a mother that becomes lost when she finds the other side of the personality of her daughter. Julia Whelan is amazing, with her angelical face, in the role of a teenager with a secret behavior on the back of her mother. The rendition of her character in the end of the story makes an optimistic end, but I have nothing against it. There is one particular dialog in this movie that I liked a lot between Marcia and Mike. Marcia wants to know her mistake in raising Zoey, and Mike replies that it is among ten thousand others mistakes. A great truth in a non-perfect world in a movie with a good message. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Vida Secreta de Uma Adolescente" ("The Secret Life of an Adolescent")

ghettoracer Might contain spoilers I guess... so you've been warned. I just saw this on HBO in Taiwan... I was very impressed. Superb acting, nothing over the top. And the story is very believable. Drugs are everywhere in USA. So when the pressure or un happiness mounts, I think teens who are not raised right could easily try it casually and get addicted. They do not try to pretend to know the solution to the problems but it is true, it is up to Zoey to come face to face with her problems and solve them. Sounds simple enough... if you simplify life down to the core, it is indeed simple.I'm a 31 years old male. I have no kids yet, but I know ideally I want a daughter and a son. I hope I don't have to deal with this kind of problems.