Early in "A Father's Nightmare," the young gymnast Lisa Carmichael is telling her new friend Vanessa about a cherished object that belonged to her mother. It was an old "scrunchie," a band of cloth that attaches to the hair. This scrunchie was used in a production of "Swan Lake," the favorite ballet of Lisa's mother, Anna. But Vanessa subsequently steals the scrunchie, then attempts to turn Lisa into a pill popper, jeopardizing her work as a gymnast and even threatening her life.
Two essential questions are (1) why is Vanessa attempting to poison Lisa's life? and (2) who actually is Vanessa? A clue to answering those questions comes in the introduction of a mysterious character named Zofia, who resides in a mental facility and is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Zofia was the bestie of Lisa's mother Anna. But it will not be until the closing moments of the film that Zofia's true identity is revealed.
The film was unfortunately a real downer. It stretched credibility that a highly disciplined athlete like Lisa would fall for the act of Vanessa, who turned her into an addict and sought to control her mind like an Iago. Suddenly, Lisa is popping "addys" and "benzos" like they were candy. It was surprising that her gymnastics coach Cynthia never detected that Lisa was becoming a heavy user.
The most interesting character in the film was Matt Carmichael, the over-protective father of Lisa. It is clear that Matt was hiding a secret from his past that was apparently known to the mother Anna but never disclosed to Lisa. But the filmmakers struggled to make all of the pieces add up in a believable way. The femme fatale Vanessa was an especially unlikable figure. There was no reasonable explanation for her to walk away with a precious memento like the scrunchie, unless she were truly evil, not merely the victim of a callous father and a neurotic ballerina mother.
Two essential questions are (1) why is Vanessa attempting to poison Lisa's life? and (2) who actually is Vanessa? A clue to answering those questions comes in the introduction of a mysterious character named Zofia, who resides in a mental facility and is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Zofia was the bestie of Lisa's mother Anna. But it will not be until the closing moments of the film that Zofia's true identity is revealed.
The film was unfortunately a real downer. It stretched credibility that a highly disciplined athlete like Lisa would fall for the act of Vanessa, who turned her into an addict and sought to control her mind like an Iago. Suddenly, Lisa is popping "addys" and "benzos" like they were candy. It was surprising that her gymnastics coach Cynthia never detected that Lisa was becoming a heavy user.
The most interesting character in the film was Matt Carmichael, the over-protective father of Lisa. It is clear that Matt was hiding a secret from his past that was apparently known to the mother Anna but never disclosed to Lisa. But the filmmakers struggled to make all of the pieces add up in a believable way. The femme fatale Vanessa was an especially unlikable figure. There was no reasonable explanation for her to walk away with a precious memento like the scrunchie, unless she were truly evil, not merely the victim of a callous father and a neurotic ballerina mother.
