TV REVIEWS : ‘Mother’s Revenge’ Falters in Cliches

The plot may sound familiar--mother shoots child’s assailant in courtroom--but ABC’s “A Mother’s Revenge� (at 9 p.m. Sunday on Channels 7, 3,10 and 42) is based on a novel, not true life. These days, that’s a refreshing innovation but it’s not enough to save this teledrama from sinking into bathos.

Lesley Ann Warren plays Carol, the mother of two daughters, ages 12 and 16 (Allison Mack and Missy Crider). When the younger girl is raped and left for dead by a school janitor (David Byron), his hotshot lawyer (Annette O’Toole) gets the case dismissed. An outraged Carol shoots him, then is put on trial for murder.

The film opens with promise. The cast brings a ring of truth to the initial tragedy--the growing fear when the little girl is missing, the older daughter’s guilt at not picking her up after school, the parents’ grief. Director Armand Mastroianni uses a sensitive touch, and no violence is shown.

The promise ends early. When the rapist’s trial begins, so do the cliches, the posing and the pouting. In a round-robin orgy of guilt, everyone in the family--Mom, Dad (Bruce Davison), daughters--accepts blame for what happened and is reassured by another family member that “it’s not your fault.�

Meanwhile, who is hired to defend Carol? The same hotshot lawyer. Who will change Carol’s future by making a public statement on her behalf? The rapist’s mother (Shirley Knight). Is the homicide justified? John Robert Bensink’s script, based on trial attorney Richard Speight’s novel, says no, but the deck is stacked so heavily in the mother’s favor that the moral lesson barely registers.