Here some made-for-TV and foreign movies new to DVD, led by a surprisingly good Lifetime "true" story.
"Gracie's Choice" (Lifetime/Warner, 2004, not rated, $19.98). We have come to expect tearjerkers from the Lifetime cable channel, but seldom are they as moving and honest as this film. Helped by a pair of fabulous performances, this is a hard-hitting drama that works on every level.
Kristen Bell (TV's "Veronica Mars") stars as a teenager who takes care of her three younger brothers — at the expense of her own interests — while their drug-addicted, manipulative mother (Anne Heche) brings home abusive men, occasionally disappears for long stretches and is periodically carted off to jail. Both actresses are exceptional, and the supporting players are also good (including Diane Ladd as Heche's mother).
In this one, the tears are earned more than jerked.
Extras: Full frame, making-of featurette, subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters.
"Sex & the Single Mom" (Lifetime/Warner, 2003, not rated, $19.98). On the other hand, this Lifetime movie is sleazy garbage, a ridiculous, exploitative yarn about a single mother (Gail O'Grady) who preaches abstinence to her 15-year-old daughter but then has an affair and gets pregnant! Talk about your generation gap.
Extras: Full frame, making-of featurette, subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters.
"Twelfth Night"/"Macbeth" (HVE, 2003/1998, not rated, $29.95, two discs). These two made-for-British-TV Shakespeare adaptations are unique, and though neither is entirely successful, each provides an interesting reinterpretation for fans of the Bard.
"Twelfth Night" is a multicultural modern-day view, in which the concept — setting the mistaken-identity story in modern-day London with an Indian cast — is more satisfying than the film as a whole. This is largely due to performances that are, in general, limited to unimaginative readings rather than inventive interpolation. Still, the use of modern technology in service of the plot is a nice conceit.
"Macbeth" is also a modern-day version, sort of, although the setting is a more nebulous industrial backdrop in this abbreviated adaptation. Greta Scacchi is the best-known performer here, and, as Lady Macbeth, she stands out in a film that is still brooding but somehow less downbeat than usual.
Extras: Widescreen, liner notes, trailer, language options (English, Dutch), optional English subtitles, chapters.
"Maya" (HVE, 2001, not rated, $24.95). While much of this Indian film is about a 12-year-old girl and her cousin, and is appealing with its matter-of-fact view of childhood in India, this is hardly kids' stuff.
With printed statements at the front and back of the movie that indicate the story is based on true practices, the film slowly builds to an indictment of child abuse on a culturewide level. It's well-made but very hard to take. (Not rated, but with an R-level scene depicting graphic sex/violence.)
Extras: Widescreen, in Hindi with optional English subtitles, photo gallery, trailer, liner notes, chapters.
E-mail: hicks@desnews.com