ABC (Sun., Oct. 13, 9 p.m. ET)
C
The beginning is dramatic enough: A mother talks about troubles with her teenage daughter, how the kid has run away and lives in a shack. "I don't know why she hates me," Mom says. After that first minute, though, Tough-love turns into little more than a proselytizing promo for a real group of the same name, which uses iron parental rule to bring tough kids into line. Lee Remick and Bruce Dern, as parents of a good son and a bad one, try their best in scenes you've seen before: "Our family's falling apart!" she shouts. But Jason Patric as their bad boy has it worse, playing a trivialized view of adolescent angst: booze, dope and running away to eat cold beans out of the can. Toughlove is a controversial group. It would be an appropriate subject for a balanced 20/20 report. But as a movie, it lacks credibility and drama.
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