I remember this movie from years back either 1995 or maybe I watched it in 1996 on ABC. Connie Sellecca plays a married woman who is unable to become a mother due to a fertility problem only to have her young housekeeper played by Alyssa Milano to become a surrogate mother and then take care of the child for good. Then Connie takes back her promise and wants the child for good only to cause problems and trouble. I'm glad this movie was made because it's very rare that the issue of surrogate mothers is looked at or examined. The issue I think needs to receive more attention. I hope this movie will air again I would like to watch it again.
6 Reviews
Strong acting performances in your average TV drama with a moral dilemma
mkmkmkmkmkmkmk17 June 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Having seen quite a few made-for-TV films, ordinarily showcasing the 'talent' of aging has-been TV actresses, I was surprised that Connie Sellecca was actually able to deliver. From the beginning, she is portrayed as a creepy woman with a mysterious past. The audience knows that she once had a baby boy, who is now absent in her life. One is supposed to wonder whatever happened to him, and what her Sellecca's character Joan Quinn has to do with the situation.
I have been an admirer of Alyssa Milano's work for nine years now. So when this TV movie came on late night, I jumped my chances to tape it. Milano, who has done some mediocre work in the early nineties, finally gets her chance to let the world see what she is capable of. In the first halve, she plays this average art student (reminding one of Poison Ivy 2's Lily Leonetti's shy twin sister) with a friendly attitude. Nothing interesting there. Milano then gets some juicy acting when she agrees to be the surrogate mother of Joan's baby, and grows suspicious of Joan's integrity. The film contains some lovely confrontational scenes between Milano and Sellecca. They have such wonderful on screen chemistry: convincible as good friends looking out for each other's best interests, and as two women who can't stand the sight of each other. I have to extra note Sellecca for her portrayal of a psychotic woman, and her ability to spin you around her finger. The one minute, you sympathize with her, and the next you want Milano's character to kick her ass.
A moral dilemma attributes to the film not being your everyday '90s TV film. In the end, it is revealed that Joan accidentally killed her baby boy while smothering him when he would not stop crying. Milano's character Amy believes that Joan is an unfit mother and should never be able to have a child again. For me, this is a little to black-and-white. Admitted, Joan could sometime show some psychotic behavior, but it was every time in the best interest of her child. It was quite noticeable that she would do anything for her child and love him/her no matter what. Sellecca's character should have stepped to the police when she accidentally killed her child, but was not an evil person who could not take care of a child. Apparently, ABC wanted you to think that you cannot make a mistake. Ever.
Concluding, the film had some average writing, with a typical TV movie mother-baby-justice subject. Sellecca and Milano had great chemistry, though, and show that they may be worth more than being TV actresses. The writers unfortunately evaluated Sellecca's character's actions, locking a moral grey zone that is interesting for the viewer to think about.
One might want to note Milano's maternal instincts in the film. She was great with the baby, and has expressed strong interest in becoming a mother herself throughout her entire adult life. Milano finally became a mother only recently, at the age of 38. The actress showed us already in 1995 how good a mother she would become. Bless you!
I have been an admirer of Alyssa Milano's work for nine years now. So when this TV movie came on late night, I jumped my chances to tape it. Milano, who has done some mediocre work in the early nineties, finally gets her chance to let the world see what she is capable of. In the first halve, she plays this average art student (reminding one of Poison Ivy 2's Lily Leonetti's shy twin sister) with a friendly attitude. Nothing interesting there. Milano then gets some juicy acting when she agrees to be the surrogate mother of Joan's baby, and grows suspicious of Joan's integrity. The film contains some lovely confrontational scenes between Milano and Sellecca. They have such wonderful on screen chemistry: convincible as good friends looking out for each other's best interests, and as two women who can't stand the sight of each other. I have to extra note Sellecca for her portrayal of a psychotic woman, and her ability to spin you around her finger. The one minute, you sympathize with her, and the next you want Milano's character to kick her ass.
A moral dilemma attributes to the film not being your everyday '90s TV film. In the end, it is revealed that Joan accidentally killed her baby boy while smothering him when he would not stop crying. Milano's character Amy believes that Joan is an unfit mother and should never be able to have a child again. For me, this is a little to black-and-white. Admitted, Joan could sometime show some psychotic behavior, but it was every time in the best interest of her child. It was quite noticeable that she would do anything for her child and love him/her no matter what. Sellecca's character should have stepped to the police when she accidentally killed her child, but was not an evil person who could not take care of a child. Apparently, ABC wanted you to think that you cannot make a mistake. Ever.
Concluding, the film had some average writing, with a typical TV movie mother-baby-justice subject. Sellecca and Milano had great chemistry, though, and show that they may be worth more than being TV actresses. The writers unfortunately evaluated Sellecca's character's actions, locking a moral grey zone that is interesting for the viewer to think about.
One might want to note Milano's maternal instincts in the film. She was great with the baby, and has expressed strong interest in becoming a mother herself throughout her entire adult life. Milano finally became a mother only recently, at the age of 38. The actress showed us already in 1995 how good a mother she would become. Bless you!
A sad film
nightroses10 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The film is very well done, with a tension and mystery. The film is about a student called Amy struggling to make ends meet. She answers an ad posted in the college and finds a place to stay with a married couple, Joan and Stuart. As time goes on, Amy agrees to help the childless couple have a baby by becoming a surrogate mother. While pregnant, a lot of things about Joan doesn't make sense. The character Joan has a dark secret and wants nobody to reveal it. Even though she's a crazed and hostile woman, there is also a very tragic and very sad reason behind it.
Holy cow, this one is very sad.
SusieSalmonLikeTheFish31 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Amy is a painter in college, with no parents and entirely reliant on aid from others. When she gets a great deal of a cabin she rents, the married couple who own it seem like really nice people. But soon Amy is in a deal with them called surrogacy. Surrogacy was a trendy idea that reached the height of it's popularity in the nineties, in which a woman is impregnated by a man's sperm and she gets pregnant, having a baby for a woman who can't have one of her own. Amy feels wonderful to give Joan and Stuart Quinn the gift of a new baby boy or girl, but soon she learns about Christopher, and Joan's true colors come out.
The Surrogate was a very sad Lifetime movie, mainly because of the "villain", Joan. As Amy says when she finds out Joan has been filming her at the cabin, "what a b!tch!", but when Joan breaks down crying at the end of the film, rocking her baby on the cliff and crying about how she accidentally murdered Christopher (her real baby), it's pretty sad. It's hard to hate Joan, at least she admitted what she did in the end, and rather than taking Amy's baby and umping off the cliff with it, she returned it.
The Surrogate is more like a mystery. It's not scary, really... just incredibly creepy to think that there really are parents out there in the world just like this. Surrogacy is still done for couples who can't have their own babies though, so I wish Lifetime would make a movie for once that pointed out that not all parents wanting to try surrogacy are monsters, most of them are just people with a lot of love to give who can't have a child but want one to raise.
The Surrogate was a very sad Lifetime movie, mainly because of the "villain", Joan. As Amy says when she finds out Joan has been filming her at the cabin, "what a b!tch!", but when Joan breaks down crying at the end of the film, rocking her baby on the cliff and crying about how she accidentally murdered Christopher (her real baby), it's pretty sad. It's hard to hate Joan, at least she admitted what she did in the end, and rather than taking Amy's baby and umping off the cliff with it, she returned it.
The Surrogate is more like a mystery. It's not scary, really... just incredibly creepy to think that there really are parents out there in the world just like this. Surrogacy is still done for couples who can't have their own babies though, so I wish Lifetime would make a movie for once that pointed out that not all parents wanting to try surrogacy are monsters, most of them are just people with a lot of love to give who can't have a child but want one to raise.
Alyssa Milano's The Surragate
x_Kelsie_x14 August 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This is a wonderful movie about a college student, Amy Winslow, aspiring to be a painter. She goes apartment hunting and finds a wonderful rental cottage very cheap! She soon becomes friends with her renters- The Quinns (Joan and Stuart). They ask her to be a surrogate so that they can have a child- they couldn't because of fertility problems. They tell Amy in return they will pay ALL medical bills, housing and school tuition. She agree's and carry's the Quinn's baby. After she goes to the basement to find her oil based paints she finds baby Christopher's infant outfit. This is unsettling so Amy decides to do an investigation so she can get more information before handing over "her" baby. Once her baby is born- Joan quickly takes the baby and shuts Amy completely out of her life. She hires guards to watch the home so Amy is not able to come near. Amy goes on a wild hunt to find the real identity of the Quinns and what really happened to Christopher, Amy soon finds herself with kidnapped baby "Christine" who she renames Emily. After more hiding and digging Amy finds herself at the home of Joan Quinn's mothers house- where Joan and Stuart are waiting for her, they discuss that the Quinns aren't ready to parent and that baby Emily should go to her rightful mother- Amy. The movie ends with Amy and her boyfriend talking about how they will raise Emily once she is older.
**I find it funny that Amy's line had said: "No tattoo's she can have her ears pierced but no tattoos no nose ring, belly ring, none of that weird stuff." However in real life Alyssa Milano has 8 tattoos and her nose and belly button pierced.
**I find it funny that Amy's line had said: "No tattoo's she can have her ears pierced but no tattoos no nose ring, belly ring, none of that weird stuff." However in real life Alyssa Milano has 8 tattoos and her nose and belly button pierced.
Samantha Micelli from Who's the Boss? meets Pam Davidson Hinkley from The Greatest American Hero
wilsonandrewc2 December 2018
I watch this movie on YouTube and I hope it never gets taken down because I never get tired of watching the characters that Connie Sellecca and David Dukes play in this movie get what they deserve at the end of this movie. I think Connie Sellecca is too nice to play the role as a villain. All the other characters she played were nice ladies and she is a nice lady in real life. I can't believe Alyssa Milano trusted her. And what Alyssa Milano and Connie Sellecca have in common is that they're both Italian Americans who were born in New York City but they were born in different parts of New York City. Alyssa Milano was born in Brooklyn and Connie Sellecca was born in The Bronx.
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