Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

dhainline1 "Small Sacrifices" is based on the story of Elizabeth Diane Downs aka Diane Downs who shot her 2 daughters and 1 son in 1983 on a lonely country road while she was driving the kids home from a friend's house late at night. Diane said time and again a strange man with shaggy hair came out of the shadows and demanded her car. When she refused, he shot her sleeping children. In the book by Ann Rule, the kids are named Christie, Cheryl and Danny. In this treatment, they go under the aliases of Karen, Shauna and Robbie. In a way this confuses me because the real names of the kids are in the well-known book and in the TV movie of the same title they go under other names and everyone can find the real names by reading the book! Mild criticism aside, this movie shows another great performance by the late, wonderful Farrah Fawcett! She is so good as the narcissistic, sociopathic Diane Downs who wanted her new boyfried, Lew Lewiston (Ryan O'Neal) to be a father to the kids even though he went the permanent route of ensuring he would never have children by getting a vasectomy. After his rejection, Diane basically loses it and writes him letters proclaiming her love for the married Lew. This was the catalyst for the shooting of the three children by their mom. All the performers are great in this movie! John Shea goes toe-to-toe with Farrah as Frank Joziak the prosecutor and he really cares about her children. A very young Emily Perkins is also wonderful as the traumatized Karen who saw her mother shot her brother and sister and her. She is the one who testifies against her mother because Shauna was shot to death and while Robbie was paralyzed by the bullet, he was too young to testify in court. Next to "The Burning Bed" Farrah has another winner in the TV movie arena!

BreanneB I have been a fan of Farrah Fawcett ever since I first saw her performance in "The Burning Bed." She no doubt plays just as good in this film. I was sad when she died.I'm going to read the book that this movie is based on. Diane Downs was an eccentric, enigmatic, cold-hearted selfish person who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. She even went to the extreme of killing her one daughter and trying to kill her other daughter and her son just so she could be with a man. Scummy bitch.Of course when she is questioned by the authorities she gives them this bogus story that when her and her kids were driving down a dark road some bushy haired guy flagged them down claiming to need help. She also tells them that he then brandished a gun and fired at them. How ridiculous is that? Nobody would stop on a dark street in the middle of nowhere and let a total stranger get near them like she claimed.Diane got away with it for awhile but she finally got caught, thank God. Also, I'm glad she was sentenced to two life terms plus some other additional time. She deserves it. I'm also happy that the DA in that case adopted her two surviving children. They deserve loving and caring parents, not a scumbag like her.

cinemakim Two thumbs up to Farah Fawcett, Ryan O'Neal and the ever talented John Shea.So much for being a dumb blonde - Farah rocked. She took being "unfit" to a whole new level. I thought I had seen the best in her in "Extremities" but she once again showed the "acting world" that she is a force to be reckoned with. Ryan has still got the good looks and the acting to go with it.John Shea's portrayal of the Prosecutor was RIGHT ON! He exhibited a determination that wasn't his job . . . . it simply was the right thing to do for the protection of the children. A must have for a movie collector (it needs to be in DVD form also)!

Keith F. Hatcher I was drawn to watching this TV film as seeing the main actors were Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal, I was misguided into thinking it would be a good evening's viewing.I say that, not because either of these actors played their parts badly; indeed, O'Neal only has a rather small part. Having such good actors, and John Shea was rather good, it would have been befitting if the film had moulded itself to a different architecture: the so predictable style for television films made all acting concepts be limited to the same formula. Thus, frequently, Ms. Fawcett tended to overact rather than interpret the complicated characteriology of Diane Downs. The unfolding of the story, the telling of it, and the directing was so glued to preset standardised TV formulas, that there was very little any of the actors or anybody else could have done to add more depth and realism to the job. The end result, therefore, is as disappointing as the predictability: unadventurous and trite and no surprises anywhere to help it along.