Ah, the teenage years. I do not miss them. "Accused at 17" largely focuses on how out of control a teenage prank can become and emphasizes this point by death as the result. The most concerning note is that something like this could occur in real life.It is not so uncommon that different individuals involved with the scheme go on to take attitudes in different directions as the plot thickens and intensifies. I love the semi-sarcastic yet smooth way in which the detective says, "Get what's coming to you? Call me crazy, sounds like a threat" and could view this scene over and over again. It is not the best line of the movie however because later the villain's father responds to antagonism from his evil wife by saying, "I know what they call women like you." That was classic.Considering that Columbo was absent from the situation, the accused's mother did a fine job of sleuthing to expose the truth. Although far removed from teenage years, I would want that feisty character on my side if ever in similar trouble."Accused at 17" succeeds in interpreting teen angst in a justifiably and appropriately serious way, with important lessons to be applied.

This very familiar story may have been inspired by several real life crimes, cobbled together for this predictable exercise. Three teenage girls, led by a bully, gang up against a fourth girl and inadvertently kill her while trying to "teach her a lesson". Among the remaining three, mostly-innocent Bianca is also conveniently mostly-at-odds with her single mother and has left a trail of mostly-damning clues; the second girl, Sarah, is a weak-willed asthmatic follower, and the third, Fallon, is an ice cold, manipulating sociopath. Predictably, the most decent people in the story suffer the earliest consequences, as if to underscore the point that no good deed goes unpunished. Because she is the first to spill the beans, Bianca is charged with the crime ("Accused at 17") and conspired against by the other two. Trying to clear her daughter's name, Bianca's mother investigates but has her daughter's habit of leaving misleading clues when Sarah is subsequently also found dead. Evil Fallon plants evidence and tells lies, and also has a shallow, narcissistic mother who sunbathes by their pool, practices yoga and drinks martini's from an over-sized martini glass. The only familiar actor in the cast is William R. Moses, wasted in a one-note role as Fallon's clueless but decent father. It all leads to a formulaic conclusion where everything is revealed in one scene less than five minutes before the movie ends. You sort of see it coming.

Over the opening credits, cameras show a Southern California crime scene. The presence of a coroner confirms the arm we see is attached to a dead body...Five days earlier, grumpy high school student Nicole Gale Anderson (as Bianca) is mad because she can't go to a party and meet her boyfriend. Instead, she must have dinner at home with her mom Cynthia Gibb (as Jacqui) and a future step-father. While Anderson is at home and bored, boyfriend Reiley McClendon (as Chad) is charmed out of his pants by trampy Lindsay Taylor (as Dory). Anderson learns about the rum-fused incident and is understandably irked. Anderson, best friends Janet Montgomery (as Fallyn) and Stella Maeve (as Sarah) get into their skimpy bikinis, sit by the pool and decide to get even...She looks a little too old to be in high school, but Ms. Montgomery shows that, as usual, the villain gets the best part. Montgomery also looks like she could be Ms. Gibb's daughter. Anderson must look like her father. The characters are all stereotypes and there is no new ground to be found in "Accused at 17". The asthmatic best friend and African-American confidante are true to form. Men are attractive and secondary. The story is meant to fill space in an assigned TV Movie slot. Some of these formulaic dramas throw in subversion or go deliciously over-the-top. This one doesn't do anything unusual.**** Accused at 17 (12/5/09) Doug Campbell ~ Cynthia Gibb, Nicole Gale Anderson, Janet Montgomery, Stella Maeve

"Accused at 17" seems like slow going at first — an incomprehensible set of opening shots, a title reading "Five days earlier," and a plot that for the first half-hour seems like yet another yawn-inducing tale of high-school rivalries and a put-upon heroine (Nicole Gale Anderson) who idealizes her dead father and can't stand the new boyfriend (Jason Brooks, better looking than the anonymous tall, lanky, sandy-haired guys Lifetime usually casts in these parts) of her mom Jacqui (Cynthia Gibb, top-billed). We that at some point the daughter, Bianca, is going to be accused of murder but we don't know whom she's going to kill until one day at a party — which Bianca can't attend because her mom's boyfriend is throwing an elaborate dinner party for them at his home — Bianca's boyfriend Chad (Reiley McClendon) is vamped and seduced by school slut Dory (Lindsay Taylor), giving us the sort of soft-core porn scene that makes a lot of otherwise lame Lifetime movies watchable. Bianca and her friends Fallyn (Janet Montgomery) and Sarah (Stella Maeve) work out a bizarre revenge plot that ends with Dory being bashed in with a rock in a remote canyon. As silly as much of "Accused at 17" is — one gets the impression through much of the first hour that it could just as well have been called "Valley Girls Go Bad" — it takes on power and force when (here comes the spoiler) Fallyn, Dory's actual killer, not only allows Bianca to take the rap but actively frames her for it and, in the film's most chilling scene, murders Sarah by depriving her of her anti-asthma medication just as Sarah is about to go to the police and implicate Fallyn. Janet Montgomery turns in an absolutely chilling performance as a teen girl who quickly descends from adolescent angst to criminal mania; if she keeps this up she'll be a good candidate for modern-day femme fatale roles as she grows up (watch for her!).