The Secret Life of Zoey

Last updated

The Secret Life of Zoey is a 2002 Lifetime TV drama starring Mia Farrow, Julia Whelan, and Cliff De Young. The film follows the struggles of divorced parents, played by Farrow and De Young, as they attempt to save their seemingly perfect daughter (Whelan) from a secret addiction to prescription drugs.

Contents

Plot

Following the divorce of Zoey Carter's parents, Marcia and Larry Carter, sixteen-year-old Zoey begins to use drugs. From her parents' perspective, she appears to be well-adjusted and mature. However, she obtains drugs from local dealers and uses this is as a coping mechanism. Initially, Zoey's parents appear to be clueless as to the fact that she has a problem with drugs and that she is able to deceive her parents; for example, when her parents find her passed out in the backseat of her car, she defends herself by claiming that she just crawled into the backseat and fell asleep. Her secret behavior goes unnoticed at first, as her good grades and volunteer work make her appear to be a model teenager. However, Zoey escalates to stealing cash in order to buy pills and marijuana. Her drug dealer, older student Ron Morris gives her drugs to increase her addiction and encourages her to shoplift to buy more.

Zoey's addiction is discovered when her mother, Marcia finds a stash of pills in her backpack after a drug-induced fainting episode. Zoey is sent to drug rehab. Her first stint there gives only the appearance of success, as Zoey continues her secret behavior. After an overdose, Zoey returns to rehab, where her counselor, Mike Harper works with her parents to help Zoey break free of her addiction.

Principal cast

Reception

Originally titled On the Edge, [1] The Secret Life of Zoey was released in the United States on August 19, 2002, to mixed reviews. The script was viewed alternately as a fresh take on a clichéd premise, or another entrant in the mediocre teen anti-drug genre. The two female leads, Farrow and Whelan, were cited as the movie's bright spots. Whelan in particular was noted for the emotional depth and naturalness of her performance; the Orlando Sentinel's Hal Boedeker went so far as to describe her as "The sole reason to watch 'The Secret Life of Zoey'". [2] Mia Farrow's reviews were not so universally positive, but she was nominated for Best Performance in a TV movie or Miniseries at the 2003 PRISM Awards, [3] [4] which honor outstandingly realistic depictions of drug use, drug addiction and other dependence in film and television.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mia Farrow</span> American actress (born 1945)

Maria de Lourdes Villiers Farrow is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera Peyton Place and gained further recognition for her subsequent short-lived marriage to Frank Sinatra. An early film role, as Rosemary in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968), saw her nominated for a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She went on to appear in several films throughout the 1970s, such as Follow Me! (1972), The Great Gatsby (1974), and Death on the Nile (1978). Her younger sister is Prudence Farrow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WKMG-TV</span> CBS affiliate in Orlando, Florida

WKMG-TV is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Graham Media Group. The station's studios are located on John Young Parkway in Orlando, and its transmitter is located on Brown Road near Christmas, Florida.

<i>Warm Springs</i> (film) 2005 American TV series or program

Warm Springs is a 2005 made-for-television biography drama film directed by Joseph Sargent, written by Margaret Nagle, and starring Kenneth Branagh, Cynthia Nixon, Kathy Bates, Tim Blake Nelson, Jane Alexander, and David Paymer. The screenplay concerns U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1921 illness, diagnosed at the time as polio, his struggle to overcome paralysis, his discovery of the Warm Springs resort, his work to turn it into a center for the rehabilitation of polio victims, and his resumption of his political career. Roosevelt's emotional growth as he interacts with other disabled people at Warm Springs prepares him for the challenges he will face as president during the Great Depression.

WFTV is a television station affiliated with ABC in Orlando, Florida, United States. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside WRDQ, an independent station. The two stations share studios on East South Street in downtown Orlando; WFTV's primary transmitter is located near Christmas, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traylor Howard</span> American actress (born 1966)

Traylor Elizabeth Howard is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Natalie Teeger in the USA Network television series Monk from 2005 to 2009. She has also starred on the sitcoms Boston Common (1996–1997) and Two Guys and a Girl (1998–2001), while her film credits include Dirty Work (1998), Me, Myself & Irene (2000), and Son of the Mask (2005).

<i>DAG</i> (American TV series) American sitcom

DAG is an American sitcom that aired from November 14, 2000 to May 29, 2001 on NBC. It was named after its star, David Alan Grier, who stars as United States Secret Service agent Jerome Daggett. Daggett's name, in turn, is a back-formation. The show also stars Delta Burke as the First Lady of the United States of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maureen McCormick</span> American actress (born 1956)

Maureen Denise McCormick is an American actress. She portrayed Marcia Brady on the ABC television sitcom The Brady Bunch, which ran from 1969 to 1974, and reprised the role in several of the numerous Brady Bunch spin-offs and films, including The Brady Kids, The Brady Bunch Hour, The Brady Brides and A Very Brady Christmas (1988). McCormick has appeared in The Amanda Show as Moody's mom in the Moody's Point segment. McCormick also appeared in The Idolmaker (1980) as well as a wide range of other supporting film roles. In the 1980s and 1990s, she ventured into stage acting, appearing in a variety of different roles and productions such as Wendy Darling in Peter Pan and Betty Rizzo in Grease.

<i>Get Real</i> (American TV series) American TV series or program

Get Real is an American comedy-drama series that aired on the Fox Network and ran from September 1999 to April 2000. It follows the fictional Green family headed by parents Mitch and Mary and consisting of three teenagers – Meghan, Cameron, and Kenny. It stars Eric Christian Olsen, Jesse Eisenberg, Anne Hathaway, Debrah Farentino, and Jon Tenney. The series marked both Hathaway and Eisenberg's onscreen debuts. Hathaway and Olsen portrayed the older siblings to Eisenberg's central character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belle Taylor</span> Soap opera character

Belle Taylor is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Home and Away, played by Jessica Tovey. She made her first appearance during the episode broadcast on 3 February 2006. Belle's storylines included finding her birth mother, a drug addiction, her relationship with Aden Jefferies and being diagnosed with cancer. In 2009, it was announced that Tovey had quit the show and the writers decided to kill off the character. Belle made her last appearance on 11 August 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Whelan</span> American actress and author

Julia May Whelan is an American actress and author. She is best known for her role as Grace Manning on the television family drama series Once and Again (1999–2002), and her co-starring role in the 2002 Lifetime movie The Secret Life of Zoey. A noted child actor, Whelan first appeared on screen at the age of 11 and continued to take television roles until her matriculation into Middlebury College in 2004; Whelan graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury in 2008 after spending the 2006–2007 academic year as a visiting student at Lincoln College, Oxford. Whelan returned to film acting in November 2008 with a role in the fantasy thriller Fading of the Cries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nora Buchanan</span> Fictional character from the American soap opera One Life to Love

Nora Buchanan is a fictional character from the American soap opera One Life to Live. The role was originated by Hillary B. Smith in September 1992, and she remained on the show through the original television finale on January 13, 2012. Smith reprised the role when new regular episodes of OLTL began airing on Hulu, iTunes, and FX Canada via The Online Network in April 2013. General Hospital executive producer Frank Valentini announced in January 2017 that Smith would crossover the role of Nora to General Hospital. Smith first appeared on March 6, 2017, and reappeared in November of the same year. In 2019, Smith once again reprised her role as Nora on General Hospital from April 1 to April 16 of that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Jones (screen actress)</span> American actress

Sarah Jones is an American actress. She is known for her starring roles in the Apple TV+ science fiction series For All Mankind and the Fox series Alcatraz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Middleton</span>

Marc Davis Middleton is an American television journalist, media entrepreneur, author, publisher, and filmmaker who focuses on the changing culture of aging. He is the Founder and CEO of Growing Bolder, a company that produces and distributes health, well-being, and active lifestyle content creation for the 50+ demographic.

<i>Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew</i> American television series

Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, later called simply Rehab with Dr. Drew, is a reality television show that aired on the cable network VH1 in which many of the episodes chronicle a group of well-known people as they are treated for alcohol and drug addiction by Dr. Drew Pinsky and his staff at the Pasadena Recovery Center in Pasadena, California. The first five seasons of the series, on which Pinsky also serves as executive producer, cast celebrities struggling with addiction, with the first season premiering on January 10, 2008, and the fifth airing in 2011.

<i>Reckless</i> (1995 film) 1995 American film

Reckless is a 1995 American dark comedy film directed by Norman René. The screenplay by Craig Lucas is based on his 1983 play of the same title.

<i>Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story</i> 2009 American biographical television drama film

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story is a 2009 biographical television drama film directed and co-produced by Thomas Carter, written by John Pielmeier, and starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Kimberly Elise and Aunjanue Ellis. The film is based on the autobiography of neurosurgeon Ben Carson, which was co-written by Cecil Murphey and published under the same title in 1990. A Johnson & Johnson Spotlight Presentation, the movie premiered on TNT on Saturday, February 7, 2009.

Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story (2002) is a made-for-television movie based on the story of Robert Hanssen, who was charged with and convicted of selling American secrets to the Soviet Union. It was written by Norman Mailer and directed by Lawrence Schiller.

<i>Mommys Little Girl</i> 2009 book by Diane Fanning

Mommy's Little Girl: Casey Anthony and her Daughter Caylee's Tragic Fate is a 2009 biographical true crime book by novelist Diane Fanning about 2-year-old Caylee Anthony’s disappearance from her Florida home in July 2008. This was the first book released about the case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brody Morgan</span> Fictional character

Brody Morgan is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Home and Away, played by Jackson Heywood. The actor had previously appeared in the show as Lachie Cladwell in 2009. During the audition process, Heywood was paired up with several different actors until the producers found the right combination for the Morgan family. Heywood began filming his first scenes in December 2015. He made his first appearance as Brody during the episode broadcast on 7 June 2016.

Motherhood (<i>ER</i>) 24th episode of the 1st season of ER

"Motherhood" is the twenty-fourth and penultimate episode of the first season of the American medical drama ER. Written by supervising producer Lydia Woodward and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the episode was first broadcast on NBC on May 11, 1995.

References

  1. ↑ Erickson, Hal (2007). "Secret Life of Zoey (2002)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2007-11-06. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  2. ↑ Boedeker, Hal (2002-08-14). "Reviews of 'The Secret Life of Zoey' and 'Disney's Imagineers'". The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service) (August, 2002) via www.accessmylibrary.com. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
  3. ↑ "IMDb: Prism Awards: 2003". www.imdb.com. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  4. ↑ "PRISM Awards >> Winners & Nominees". www.prismawards.com. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.