In My Daughter's Name (1992) (aka: Overruled) Donna Mills, John Getz, John Rubinstein, Ron Frazier, Adam Storke, Ari Meyers, Lee Grant Movie Review

In My Daughter's Name (1992)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Donna Mills in In My Daughter's Name (1992) (aka: Overruled)

Judicial Insanity

Laura Elias (Donna Mills - Runaway Father) is left devastated when she learns that not only did Peter Lipton (Adam Storke - Death Becomes Her) rape her daughter but he killed her as well. But that is nothing compared to when thanks to Peter's powerful parents he is acquitted as they arranged for him to plead "guilty due to insanity". Determined to get justice she explores all the avenues open to her but finds each one futile leading to her taking matters in to her own hands.

Unfortunately "In My Daughter's Name", which also goes by the name "Overruled", features one of those stories which tend to come around every few years on the TV movie circuit. We have the death of a child, a judicial system which lets the grieving family down who in a desire to see justice served plan to take matters in to their own hands. Unfortunately when it comes to "In My Daughter's Name" it is very much a move of two halves with much of what works during the set up negated by a less than impressive second part.

What that means is that "In My Daughter's Name" starts with the rape and murder of Carly when having been sent out to get napkins for a surprise party, having been a typical teenager and forgotten to get them the first time of asking, finds herself getting in a stranger's car after she has car trouble. Typically as this is a TV movie it is more suggestive of what happened than being graphic but it is effective with scenes of Carly's traumatic experience cut in with scenes of the surprise party in full flow. What follows is the distress which Laura feels as the police uncover what happened to her daughter and the building up to the court case. But that is where things start to go wrong as it gets a little hokey when it comes to the defence case as to what caused Peter to suddenly act insanely a combination of asthma medication, soda and Chinese food of all things.

I won't say exactly say what follows that other than to say that pretty much everything about "In My Daughter's Name" is predictable. Unfortunately alongside what is predictable you have what is generic as well as pretty much all the characters in this made for TV drama are forgettable. As such Donna Mills delivers the necessary water works when called upon as well as looks of anger and steely determination but it is sadly only text book.

What this all boils down to is that "In My Daughter's Name" is sadly one of those routine made for TV movies from the early 90s which put more weight on delivering melodrama than on developing a gripping storyline or believable characters and as such it ends up forgettable and predictable.


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