Given Lifetime’s reputation for creating programming that caters to women from age 30 and onwards, you’d think they would have the quick romantic drama down to an exact science. They churn out maybe 5-10 new ones each year with at least one recognizable face in each, but you never know when one’s going to be a dud and when one will actually be a diamond in the rough of the typically melodramatic fare that attempts to frame any one of a hundred possible romantic happenstances. An obvious play on the Natalie Wood film Sex and the Single Girl, Sex & the Single Mom is about a man (Grant Show) and woman (Gail O’Grady), both coming from divorces with children, finding a fiery romance that refreshes both of their stagnant love lives.
About a half hour in you start trying to second-guess where the film is going to go, and chances are you’ll get it right because there are only so many places to go. Mixed into the proceedings is a tepid complication in the form of the mother’s daughter (Danielle Panabaker) and her desire to find a romantic connection with a boy on her high school’s soccer team (Kyle Schmid). The mother and daughter see their stories intersect as the mother’s hope for the daughter to remain abstinent comes full circle in an ironic twist in her own life.
Is the film just a simple drama to pass 90 minutes? Or is it a genuine examination of the hardships of finding romance past your youth? Either way it’s just enough to keep you watching, but there’s not much depth to it.
DVD Bonus Features
There are no extras for this made-for-TV Lifetime movie.
"Sex & the Single Mom" is on sale April 26, 2011 and is not rated. Drama. Directed by Don McBrearty. Written by Judith Paige Mitchell. Starring Danielle Panabaker, Grant Show, Gail Ogrady, Kyle Schmid.
