Dirty Little Secret

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source: Dirty Little Secret

No spoilers here so please read on. Dirty Little Secret is about a mother and daughter living with a mother's illness that many people suffer from which is hoarding and compulsive purchasing of on line goods. Outside of their home Joanna (Melissa Joan Hart) lives a somewhat normal life at work and wishes to start dating as a single mom supporting one of her three daughters Lucy (Lizzie Boys) who remained at home after her husband and two (2) other daughters moved out of their home not wanting to tolerate her mothers hoarding any longer. Joanna even meets a wonderful man but before the relationship can even get to first base Joanna quickly realizes that she cannot have anyone see what a mess her home has become so she breaks off this potentially loving relationship. Joanna's daughter Joy (Lizzie Boys) certainly realizes that her mother has a difficult yet incurable illness with her hoarding and non stop purchasing of on line orders. Joy is the most affected by her mothers illness which leaves her no choice but to continue to create white lies about her homelife to her friends and her school's guidance counsellor. There is a natural magnetism that occurs between a parent and their children and flaws in a persons character whether they are physical or mental are regularly overlooked with the hope that their problem(s) will simply go away on their own. Such is not the case, certainly not in this made for TV film although who of us can really understand the family dynamics unless we lived it ourselves. I am eternally grateful that my own parents were stable hard working and loving parents and their biggest problem was their own children (including myself) leaving our bedrooms a bit messy. So for those who did not like the film due to the strange ending (no spoiler here) please try and consider that there are real problems out there and when a film producer and director have approximately 90 minutes to share their story with us accept that there is a lot more to a families story that we are thankfully shared the misery of exploring. I give the film a respectable 6 out of 10 IMDb rating.

"Dirty Little Secret" starts out good and effectively sets up the plot for how Hart's character, Joanna, became a hoarder, and the effect her disorder has on her children, particularly Lucy (Lizzie Boys). We see Lucy go on a path to discovery of what a normal functioning family looks like, and sees how a boy in her class has come to terms with his mom's recovery from alcoholism, and we develop hope that she will gain inner strength and feel empowered to lead her mother to admitting her problem and get her on the path to redemption. And the storyline does get us to the point where Lucy confronts her mother, and Joanna does show signs of realizing her problem. The viewer has hope that Joanna will be redeemed and Lizzie will prove mature beyond her years. Then it all goes downhill from there. Everything gets weird and nonsensical. I won't give away the details, but the last 30 minutes was bizarre. I think the Lifetime network should have a contest of its viewers to see who can write a better ending to this otherwise pretty good movie.

There was no rhyme or reason to this movie. Just stupid would be a good title for it. So her mother dies and she goes to a party but does not stay and her boy/f never goes to check on her. Or even go with her to help her when she left the party? What a crappy boy/f! The sad thing is this movie could have actually been good if they had just changed a few things. I was invested up until she didn't call 911, then the rest of the movie just sucked! Not worth seeing in the first place. Also the daughter and brother cannot act, everyone else was believable.

I was so excited to see a lifetime movie about something different than cheerleaders, cheating spouses and crazy nannies, and to see one of my fave actresses in it, but dang, the ending was gosh awful and i feel duped. It was the most anticlimactic ending to a movie I've ever seen..melissa joan hart deserved better than this. She was so good in it. The ending made me rate it a 2. The 2 was for the acting alone.

Melissa Joan Hart as Joanna and Lizzie Boys as her daughter, Lucy, both shine in this Lifetime movie about a woman who is essentially, a pack rat and will not part with anything. It gets so bad that she loses her husband and her 2 older children move out. Lucy and her mom keep her secret well guarded. Their house looks like a wall-to-wall garage sale. I never knew that this was actually a sickness, The movie has an unhappy ending, though. More like this!!!

Love that this is a movie about hoarding. The actors were incredible and the story was unpredictable. I understand why she wouldn't call for help at the end of the day she was a teenager not fully developed and she had been conditioned since childhood to hide this secret. I think it was beautifully done and is realistic to the years of trauma Lizzie's character endured therefore in a state of shock couldn't reason being she was a child for 1 and 2 a victim of childhood trauma along with wanting to please her mother at any cost out of grief and shock. I really hope there will be a second movie because I think it had hints of the older sister with some of her mother's traits. I would be interested to see how the three children cope with this trauma in the aftermath.

This movie was almost disturbing to watch, which means the lead character, Melissa Joan Hart killed it in this role! You could really feel that she has a disorder and the moments she freaks out in the movie are that of a real life hoarder. I do wish the movie had a more uplifting ending, but not all stories have a happy ending.