| When Friendship Kills | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | James A. Contner |
| Produced by | Tracey Jeffrey |
| Written by | Elizabeth Gill |
| Starring | Lynda Carter Katie Wright Marley Shelton |
| Music by | Stacy Widelitz |
| Cinematography | Richard Leiterman |
| Editing by | Thomas Fries |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Release date | February 19, 1996 |
| Running time | 96 minutes |
When Friendship Kills, also released as A Secret Between Friends: A Moment of Truth Movie, is a 1996 American television film directed by James A. Contner. The movie is a part of the Moment of Truth franchise and deals with the danger of anorexia nervosa among teens.[1]
Contents |
Lexi Archer is a teenager who, after the divorce of her parents, moves with her mother Kathryn and younger sister Jill from Chicago to Seattle. At her new school, she befriends Jennifer Harnsberger, a popular straight A student who she meets during volleyball tryouts. After comments by her mother and volleyball coach about her weight, she starts to look for ways to diet. When Jennifer admits to being bulimic, they decide to diet and work out together.
Kathryn notices that she is eating less and getting thinner, but she is more occupied with her divorce to realize that she has a problem. Meanwhile, Lexi and Jill visit their father in Chicago and try to pursue him to reunite with Kathryn, but they soon discover that he is dating a new woman, Jolene.
Kathryn starts to first suspect an eating disorder when she finds out that Lexi hasn't had her period in over three months. She consults a gynaecologist, but she tells her that Lexi is at a normal weight, and that it is probably because of the trauma of the divorce. They don't know, however, that she put weight bundles on her body to make her appear to be heavier.
Meanwhile, she and Jennifer consider being models. They are excited to be contacted by Nick McKay, a photographer, but he is interested only in Jennifer and explains that Lexi isn't fit to be a model. Upset, she starts to diet even more and she eventually collapses during a volleyball match. She is hospitalized, diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and she is forced to enter a recovery program.
Her parents have different opinions about her treatment and start to argue. Nevertheless, she eventually recovers and is released. She admits to her mother that Jennifer has an eating disorder as well. Kathryn, in a worry, immediately informs her mother, and Jennifer feels betrayed when she hears about it. She refuses to speak to Lexi, for which Lexi blames her mother. Lexi tries to confront her at a party, but Jennifer, drunk and upset, leaves, only to be hit by a car. She is taken to a hospital and dies of a cardiac arrest.
Lexi has trouble dealing with her friend's death and continues her eating disorder. Devastated, her mother tries to help her, assuring her that Jennifer's death can't be blamed on her. Her father wants her to be hospitalized again, but Kathryn insists she can help her herself. He is successful in getting a court order to hospitalize her, but Lexi is in the end able to recover on her own, encouraged by her mother.
The film ends with Lexi participating in a volleyball match, in which she sees Jen's spirit who smiles at her, and she wins the match.