In 2008, a media firestorm showcases the rash of teenage pregnancies in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Three months before, internet blogger Sidney Bloom (Thora Birch) returns to her high school alma mater to report on a suspected story on teen pregnancies. Everybody is ignoring the situation except nurse Kim Daly (Camryn Manheim). She is powerless to institute changes. Lorraine Dougan (Nancy Travis) leads the conservative locals and her daughter Sara has been trying to get pregnant to fit in with her friends.The story is ripped from the headlines. It's one of those Lifetime movies but I rather they fictionalize the whole thing to add more drama. Some of these girls are good actors but the characters are too annoying. The story has too many elements of a bad movie-of-the-week. There could be an interesting movie from this material. I like some actors but they don't add up to a great movie.

Can anyone understand the mind of a teenager? Why don't teenagers better understand consequences, and why are so many in such a hurry to grow up? These questions burn in the mind of every parent of a certain age, and this movie, short of providing concrete answers, is one of the best treatments I've seen on the subject. Many movies ask the audience to accept extraordinary circumstances: a flying elephant, for example. Screen writers call this "suspension of disbelief," and are careful not to exceed the ability of the audience to wrap their mind around a premise. This movie is more difficult than others because the premise hits very close to home; it invites challenge. Did four teenage girls in Gloucester, Massachusetts intentionally try to get pregnant? We'd like to think not, but the possibility makes an excellent theme for a movie, and the writers leapt at it, taking full advantage of this opportunity to give full treatment to the important subject of teenage pregnancy. The temptation will be to view the teenage characters through a rational perspective and dismiss the movie as being just as stupid. Yes, the main characters were stupid, but there's much more to it than that. You will enjoy the movie much more if you exercise your empathy skills and try to identify with the characters. The writers made it easy to do so; my compliments to them. The result was both clinical and artful. And while the movie, at times, lacked drama and emotion, I was able to identify with the main character, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. The other components of the movie were satisfactory. The plot was sufficiently unpredictable, and the ending did not disappoint. After watching this movie, you will have learned the most important lesson in parenting: Children are born without knowledge. Parents (and in my opinion, teachers, too) must explain things over and over again in a variety of ways and in a variety of voices. What works for one kid, may not work for another. The important thing is to keep trying and don't just assume that the child gets it.

The picture is trying to depict that much more must be done to avoid teen pregnancy.We have quite a story going here with 4 girls in a rural Massachusetts town agreeing to become pregnant. They don't realize the consequences of their actions. In addition, their lives are dull and their goals in society are limited. Getting married and having kids is all they want. Sounds like a time when the thought of girls going to college was looked upon as ludicrous.We have a principal of a high school who really doesn't know or want to know what's going on until he confronted with the issue. A reporter, formerly from the town, returns and reveals to her ex-boyfriend, now wed with children and an assistant principal in the school, that she gave up their child, and did not abort it as she claimed.Nancy Travis is wonderful in the part of the mother, president of the council who is against intervention even when her own daughter becomes president.Serious subject matter is dealt with honestly, but more passion was needed here.

With all the hype, I was hoping that "The Pregnancy Pact" would finally be able to put a realistic spin on the seriousness of teen pregnancy. I can give it credit for almost succeeding.It starts out well enough. The school nurse (Camryn Manheim) has administered over 150 pregnancy tests during the school year, with 18 positive results. Her answer is to administer contraceptives, but head of the church committee Lorraine Dougan (Nancy Travis) says that contraceptives at school only encourages sex. Little does Lorraine know that her teenage daughter Sara has agreed to be a part of a 'pregnancy pact': She and her friends agree to become pregnant deliberately when their friend Rose becomes pregnant on accident 'so that our babies can grow up together'. Before long, a young reporter named Sidney (Thora Birch) returns to her hometown to get the scoop on the pregnancy spike. Then, we find out that Sidney has a skeleton in her closet, as well.It's not that this movie is that bad, but it isn't great. The cluelessness of the teenagers is accurate, and so is Mrs. Dougan's optimism that her daughter would never get herself into such a predicament. Thora Birch's Sidney is a welcome breath of fresh air as the enterprising reporter who reveals the ignorance of these girls and the importance of 'choice'. The fact that this movie dared to touch on the option of abortion was what I thought made this movie different, because whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, abortion is just as open an option as keeping the child or putting the child up for adoption.What brought this movie down was that it copped out halfway through on everything that could have made it stand out. By the second half, when the truth finally comes out, it becomes very predictable: Sara's relationships with her parents and boyfriend hits the skids; the town is scandalized; Rose, the 'bad girl' who hatched this crazy scheme, gives birth to a sick baby; Sara drinks herself into a near-coma after her boyfriend Jesse says he wants nothing to do with a 'liar' like her; and Sidney reveals to her boyfriend and the world that what he thought happened all those years ago with them, didn't. The closing shots (Rose and Sara as teenage mothers...they didn't include the fates of the other participants of the pact) were what irritated me most. Even though the voice-over from Sidney was about the difficulty of choices to be made and the rigors of teenage motherhood, the message on the screen seemed to be "Bad girls get bad babies; good girls get good babies", and that is at best misleading since even people who follow the baby books to the letter get babies with problems. See it if you must, but don't expect any Emmy-nominations for this one.