Dawn Anna Townsend (Debra Winger) is a single mom of four teens struggling to make ends meet. She gets a low paying teaching job and becomes a beloved volleyball coach. Fellow teacher Bink takes a liking to her. She becomes chronically ill and hospitalized. She struggles to recover with the help of her kids, Bink and fellow teachers. Then the massacre at Columbine High School kills her daughter Lulu.It's great to see Debra Winger again. She's terrific and she is sorely missed. The first hour is functional sick mother movie. It has very little drama and no tension at all. Then the movie reveals a surprise that she's been teaching at Columbine all along. It's a shocking turn. I want to like this for Debra Winger and the subject matter. However the surprise is unnecessary and too distracting. The movie would work even better by showing Columbine from the very beginning. It would keep the tension high as the anticipation of the massacre grows.

Enjoyed viewing this film and the great unity of a family with their mother and each other. There was a bonding between this family no matter what situations they seemed to face and with all the odds against them. All the members in this film showed they all had a purpose driven life and a great will to live. One sister enjoyed watching nature in all forms of life, hawk, young baby chic and dreamed of flying through the air in her dreams. This film was well directed and very down to earth about what life is really all about. Debra Winger,(Dawn Anna Townsend),"An Officer & Gentlemen",'82, put her heart and soul into her acting as she always has in her film career. There was very joyous scenes in this film and also very bitter and heart breaking ones. Great film, with all great actors.

This movie was the best movie I have seen on Lifetime TV so far. I cried from about halfway through the movie until the ending. It's about overcoming terrible events in one family's life and learning that in the end, everything will be OK. The actors and actresses did a superb job or portraying tragic events without taking anything away from the real life events. The cast seemed very comfortable with each other. I agree that one may not understand the meaning of the movie if they have not seen it from the beginning to the end. I would recommend a box of tissues when viewing this movie. I taped this movie and showed my mom, who cried throughout the entire movie.

I think people saw this movie expecting a Columbine story. The title of the movie is called "Dawn Anna" not "The story of Columbine High School", so I think it's safe to assume that the movie will be about Dawn Anna. Yes, Columbine was mentioned because Dawn Anna's daughter died at Columbine. They aren't going to center the story around it. It's supposed to be about a woman who goes through a life-threatening illness and her youngest child dying and being able to persevere. I thought this movie was heart-felt, and I found it even more touching because I actually know Dawn Anna since she substituted at my middle school one day. The movie is about the strength of an ordinary woman and the importance of her family. Don't see this movie if you're expecting it to be about Columbine, because you will be disappointed.