Love Child
Following her parents' divorce and nomadic childhood, 21-year-old Terry Jean Moore (Amy Madigan) moves to New Orleans, Louisiana, and later to Orlando, Florida, with her underage teen cousin, Jesse Ch…
Love Child
Following her parents' divorce and nomadic childhood, 21-year-old Terry Jean Moore (Amy Madigan) moves to New Orleans, Louisiana, and later to Orlando, Florida, with her underage teen cousin, Jesse Chaney (Lewis Smith). While hitchhiking out of Orlando on August 12, 1977, a car stops for them. Jesse points a gun at the driver and instructs Terry to take the wheel, but she claims she cannot drive a manual transmission stick shift vehicle. As they argue, the driver escapes with the keys, and the pair is later arrested outside a convenience store. With Jesse locked in a juvenile probation center, Terry is charged with armed robbery. Despite her clean record and her argument that she never touched the gun, the unforgiving judge sentences her to 15 years in a woman's state prison, with the possibility of parole in seven years. On the first day, when the other inmates burn Terry's books, the guards see her standing over the flames and confine her to a solitary cell. Losing her temper, she uses a cigarette to set fire to her bed linens, an action for which she is sent to the Broward County Correctional Institute and with an additional five more years added to her prison sentence. There, Terry is instantly derided by the other prisoners, earning the nickname "Prom Queen." A violent brawl with a nosy cellmate prompts a verbal disciplining from the sympathetic Officer Jack Hansen (Beau Bridges), who playfully insists he will break her neck if she continues to misbehave. Eventually, Terry strikes up a friendship with a lesbian inmate named J. J. (Mackenzie Phillips), but one day, an aggressive woman named Mara (Anna Marie Horsford) threatens her with a blade. Although witnesses defend Terry, prison warden Captain Mark Ellis (Albert Salmi) punishes her with 15 days of solitary confinement. After 200 days of incarceration, Jack and Terry's discreet flirtation develops into a clandestine affair. Meanwhile, Terry is assigned to work in the library alongside June Burns (Rhea Pearlman), who immediately notices Terry's strange relationship with the officer. Following a tryst in the warehouse, Terry wistfully imagines her life with Jack outside of prison, and he promises to find a lawyer to help shorten her sentence. A few months later, with legal proceedings underway, Terry jubilantly informs Jack that she is pregnant. Although she is confident that she will be released before anyone finds out, Jack worriedly returns home to his wife and two children. As the other correction officers begin hearing rumors of Terry's condition, J. J. and June Burns attempt to convince her to have an abortion, but she stubbornly refuses. Suspicious, Capt. Ellis adjusts Jack's patrol so that he remains distanced from Terry. When Mara reveals that Jack is married, a distraught Terry confronts him across a fence, but he insists that telling her the truth would not have made a difference in their situation. Later, she cries in J. J.'s arms and begs June to help her conceal her pregnancy from the prison superintendent, Mrs. Helen Sturgis (Joanna Merlin), who locks her in "medical confinement" until she agrees to take a pregnancy test. One day, Capt. Ellis informs Terry that Hansen has quit his job. A month into Terry's isolation, June reads about a law that she believes will help Terry, so the expectant mother writes a letter to a civil lawyer named Jacki Steinberg (Margaret Whitton). Aware that she is now five months pregnant and therefore can no longer be forced into having an abortion, Terry finally admits to her pregnancy. According to a particular statute in the Florida state law, she stipulates that she has the right to keep her child with her in the institution for 18 months. When Jacki takes Terry's case to court, Mrs. Sturgis contests that the prison facility is unsuitable for raising a child, but Terry gives an emotional statement, claiming that the baby has changed her character by giving her a sense of responsibility. Honoring the right of the unborn child to be with its mother, the judge rules in favor of Terry, and she eventually gives birth to a baby girl named Precious. In 1979, Terry and the infant are paroled and Terry serves the remainder of her sentence on probation in Orlando.
Love Child
Crime,Drama,Romance
Film Details
Following her parents' divorce and nomadic childhood, 21-year-old Terry Jean Moore (Amy Madigan) moves to New Orleans, Louisiana, and later to Orlando, Florida, with her underage teen cousin, Jesse Chaney (Lewis Smith). While hitchhiking out of Orlando on August 12, 1977, a car stops for them. Jesse points a gun at the driver and instructs Terry to take the wheel, but she claims she cannot drive a manual transmission stick shift vehicle.
As they argue, the driver escapes with the keys, and the pair is later arrested outside a convenience store. With Jesse locked in a juvenile probation center, Terry is charged with armed robbery. Despite her clean record and her argument that she never touched the gun, the unforgiving judge sentences her to 15 years in a woman's state prison, with the possibility of parole in seven years.
On the first day, when the other inmates burn Terry's books, the guards see her standing over the flames and confine her to a solitary cell. Losing her temper, she uses a cigarette to set fire to her bed linens, an action for which she is sent to the Broward County Correctional Institute and with an additional five more years added to her prison sentence. There, Terry is instantly derided by the other prisoners, earning the nickname "Prom Queen." A violent brawl with a nosy cellmate prompts a verbal disciplining from the sympathetic Officer Jack Hansen (Beau Bridges), who playfully insists he will break her neck if she continues to misbehave.
Eventually, Terry strikes up a friendship with a lesbian inmate named J. J. (Mackenzie Phillips), but one day, an aggressive woman named Mara (Anna Marie Horsford) threatens her with a blade.
Although witnesses defend Terry, prison warden Captain Mark Ellis (Albert Salmi) punishes her with 15 days of solitary confinement. After 200 days of incarceration, Jack and Terry's discreet flirtation develops into a clandestine affair. Meanwhile, Terry is assigned to work in the library alongside June Burns (Rhea Pearlman), who immediately notices Terry's strange relationship with the officer.
Following a tryst in the warehouse, Terry wistfully imagines her life with Jack outside of prison, and he promises to find a lawyer to help shorten her sentence. A few months later, with legal proceedings underway, Terry jubilantly informs Jack that she is pregnant. Although she is confident that she will be released before anyone finds out, Jack worriedly returns home to his wife and two children.
As the other correction officers begin hearing rumors of Terry's condition, J. J. and June Burns attempt to convince her to have an abortion, but she stubbornly refuses.
Suspicious, Capt. Ellis adjusts Jack's patrol so that he remains distanced from Terry. When Mara reveals that Jack is married, a distraught Terry confronts him across a fence, but he insists that telling her the truth would not have made a difference in their situation.
Later, she cries in J. J.'s arms and begs June to help her conceal her pregnancy from the prison superintendent, Mrs. Helen Sturgis (Joanna Merlin), who locks her in "medical confinement" until she agrees to take a pregnancy test.
One day, Capt. Ellis informs Terry that Hansen has quit his job. A month into Terry's isolation, June reads about a law that she believes will help Terry, so the expectant mother writes a letter to a civil lawyer named Jacki Steinberg (Margaret Whitton).
Aware that she is now five months pregnant and therefore can no longer be forced into having an abortion, Terry finally admits to her pregnancy. According to a particular statute in the Florida state law, she stipulates that she has the right to keep her child with her in the institution for 18 months. When Jacki takes Terry's case to court, Mrs.
Sturgis contests that the prison facility is unsuitable for raising a child, but Terry gives an emotional statement, claiming that the baby has changed her character by giving her a sense of responsibility. Honoring the right of the unborn child to be with its mother, the judge rules in favor of Terry, and she eventually gives birth to a baby girl named Precious. In 1979, Terry and the infant are paroled and Terry serves the remainder of her sentence on probation in Orlando..