***SPOILERS*** Sad but touching made for TV movie involving teenage suicide and it's effects on the person's-who killed himself-family and friends.
As both his parents Maggie & Sam Stapp, Meredith Baxter & Bruce Davison, thought their 18 year-old son Jimmy, Peter Facinelli, had everything going for him in school where he's a straight A student and on his high school soccer team where he's the star player. Both of Jimmy's parents didn't quite notice the sever depression that Jimmy was going through until it was too late. That's when Jimmy took his dad's licensed .38 caliber handgun loaded it with ammunition, that he bought at the local sporting good store, and quietly blew his brains out, This while his parents as well as little sister Rosie, Mea Withman, and brother Billy, Ryan Slater, were attending Sunday Church services!
In trying to cope with his great loss Jimmy's father Sam Stapp just went into a shell in him not as much as going outside to buy the groceries or newspaper. That had Jimmy's mother Maggie become not only the breadwinner for the Stapp family but psychiatrist, in looking after her almost helpless husband Sam, as well. It was Maggie's reluctance to face the truth about her dead son Jimmy in that he in fact killed himself not that he died due to an accidentally shooting, as Maggie always insisted, kept both her and Sam, as well as little Rosie and Billy, from excepting the reality of Jimmy's emotional problems that lead to his suicide.
The truth about what made Jimmy kill himself came out in Maggie trying to blame the very people, at school, who tried to help Jimmy while he was still alive: His teacher Susan Johnson, Tina Lifford and school principle Mr. Davies, Raye Birk, as well as his school appointed psychiatrist Dr. Walters, Zeljko Ivanek. It turned out that Jimmy was just giving up on his schoolwork and his training for the school soccer team and going into a deep depression. It's never explained in the film what made Jimmy act this way only that he seemed to have suffered from burn out in trying to please his parents and make them proud of him. Even the letters that his teacher and principle sent to his parents were intercepted by Jimmy who forged his mom's signature making it look like she, and Sam, got word about her very troubled son.
It took a lot for Maggie to accept her son's Jimmy's suicide which almost wrecked her family with Sam and the kids, Rosie & Billy, at one point in the movie leaving Maggie in order to get away from her constant quarrels with them over Jimmy. With Sam's insistence Maggie was finally persuaded, after at first refusing, to get help by attending a support group of persons who lost a loved one because of them killing themselves that had her overcome Jimmy's tragic death.
The death of someone close to you is tragic enough but when that person took his, or her, own life makes it that much worse. Maggie in her effort to convince herself that her son's death was somehow an accident didn't help her in the fact, suicide or not, that he was no longer with her. It also made her husband Sam an emotional cripple in, by her constantly hinting at it, that it was his gun that caused Jimmy's, either suicide or accidental shooting, death. It was with the help of Sam and the people in the support group that Maggie finally accepted Jimmy's killing himself and thus was able to put it behind her and go out and face what the future held for her.
As both his parents Maggie & Sam Stapp, Meredith Baxter & Bruce Davison, thought their 18 year-old son Jimmy, Peter Facinelli, had everything going for him in school where he's a straight A student and on his high school soccer team where he's the star player. Both of Jimmy's parents didn't quite notice the sever depression that Jimmy was going through until it was too late. That's when Jimmy took his dad's licensed .38 caliber handgun loaded it with ammunition, that he bought at the local sporting good store, and quietly blew his brains out, This while his parents as well as little sister Rosie, Mea Withman, and brother Billy, Ryan Slater, were attending Sunday Church services!
In trying to cope with his great loss Jimmy's father Sam Stapp just went into a shell in him not as much as going outside to buy the groceries or newspaper. That had Jimmy's mother Maggie become not only the breadwinner for the Stapp family but psychiatrist, in looking after her almost helpless husband Sam, as well. It was Maggie's reluctance to face the truth about her dead son Jimmy in that he in fact killed himself not that he died due to an accidentally shooting, as Maggie always insisted, kept both her and Sam, as well as little Rosie and Billy, from excepting the reality of Jimmy's emotional problems that lead to his suicide.
The truth about what made Jimmy kill himself came out in Maggie trying to blame the very people, at school, who tried to help Jimmy while he was still alive: His teacher Susan Johnson, Tina Lifford and school principle Mr. Davies, Raye Birk, as well as his school appointed psychiatrist Dr. Walters, Zeljko Ivanek. It turned out that Jimmy was just giving up on his schoolwork and his training for the school soccer team and going into a deep depression. It's never explained in the film what made Jimmy act this way only that he seemed to have suffered from burn out in trying to please his parents and make them proud of him. Even the letters that his teacher and principle sent to his parents were intercepted by Jimmy who forged his mom's signature making it look like she, and Sam, got word about her very troubled son.
It took a lot for Maggie to accept her son's Jimmy's suicide which almost wrecked her family with Sam and the kids, Rosie & Billy, at one point in the movie leaving Maggie in order to get away from her constant quarrels with them over Jimmy. With Sam's insistence Maggie was finally persuaded, after at first refusing, to get help by attending a support group of persons who lost a loved one because of them killing themselves that had her overcome Jimmy's tragic death.
The death of someone close to you is tragic enough but when that person took his, or her, own life makes it that much worse. Maggie in her effort to convince herself that her son's death was somehow an accident didn't help her in the fact, suicide or not, that he was no longer with her. It also made her husband Sam an emotional cripple in, by her constantly hinting at it, that it was his gun that caused Jimmy's, either suicide or accidental shooting, death. It was with the help of Sam and the people in the support group that Maggie finally accepted Jimmy's killing himself and thus was able to put it behind her and go out and face what the future held for her.