Professional model Lauren LaSalle is devastated upon discovering that her husband Rick is actually a cocaine dealer. She attempts to leave with her child but is stopped. Making another attempt, this time alone, she succeeds. Forging a new identity, Lauren makes a plan to rescue her daughter, to that end taking flying lessons with Charlie, a decent man whose ex-wife is trying to bankrupt him. Together, the pair make an audacious attempt to rescue Lauren's daughter from Rick's house before he relocates for good.
Necessity is a minor telepic thriller based on one of the novels of Death Wish creator Brian Garfield. The film tackles the concept of a drug dealer's wife trying to escape her husband's clutches & rescue her child from him as well.
Despite the film being quite sympathetic to the heroine's plight, I wasn't particularly impressed with the concept as a whole. Child abductions by one parent is a growing problem in some countries, with several mothers & fathers undergoing a custody dispute forcefully taking their children & fleeing to remote locations in order to either keep their children to themselves or to harm them as punishment to their ex-partners. Whilst the film makes it look like a good thing only because the ex-partner in this case is a drug dealer, in real life the very act itself, no matter who is doing it or why, is illegal. Most of what Loni Anderson does in the film is illegal enough – obtaining a driver licence or birth certificate under false pretences, using the stock market to launder drug money that she stole from her ex, & so on. This is just a whole heap of trouble that should not be tolerated.
The whole legal issue aside, the film is a reasonable thriller. Loni Anderson gives a passable performance as the model trying to rescue her child from her evil drug dealer husband. John Heard is equally passable as the pilot friend & Sherman Howard – famous amongst genre fans for playing "Bub" the good zombie in DAY OF THE DEAD – is good as James Naughton's friend.
Necessity is a minor telepic thriller based on one of the novels of Death Wish creator Brian Garfield. The film tackles the concept of a drug dealer's wife trying to escape her husband's clutches & rescue her child from him as well.
Despite the film being quite sympathetic to the heroine's plight, I wasn't particularly impressed with the concept as a whole. Child abductions by one parent is a growing problem in some countries, with several mothers & fathers undergoing a custody dispute forcefully taking their children & fleeing to remote locations in order to either keep their children to themselves or to harm them as punishment to their ex-partners. Whilst the film makes it look like a good thing only because the ex-partner in this case is a drug dealer, in real life the very act itself, no matter who is doing it or why, is illegal. Most of what Loni Anderson does in the film is illegal enough – obtaining a driver licence or birth certificate under false pretences, using the stock market to launder drug money that she stole from her ex, & so on. This is just a whole heap of trouble that should not be tolerated.
The whole legal issue aside, the film is a reasonable thriller. Loni Anderson gives a passable performance as the model trying to rescue her child from her evil drug dealer husband. John Heard is equally passable as the pilot friend & Sherman Howard – famous amongst genre fans for playing "Bub" the good zombie in DAY OF THE DEAD – is good as James Naughton's friend.