After Jimmy (1996)

Genres - Drama  |   Release Date - Sep 24, 1996 (USA - Unknown)  |   Run Time - 120 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

To their friends and neighbors, the Stapps were the "perfect" family--at least until, for no apparent reason, 18-year-old Jimmy Stapp (Peter Fanicelli) committed suicide. The focus in this heartwrenching made-for-TV movie is not on Jimmy but on the "survivors",who painfully attempt to put their own lives back together in the wake of the inexplicable tragedy. Worst hit by Jimmy's death is his mother Maggie (Meredith Baxter), who for the first time in her life must reach out to her loved ones for emotional support rather than the other way around. The film is at its best when detailing the vacillating mental state of Jimmy between the time he decides to take his own life and the time he actually does it; less effective is the death scene itself, which is all too reminiscent of the "baptismal bloodbath" in The Godfather (the boy shoots himself with his dad's gun while the rest of his family sing a hymn in church). Produced for the CBS network, After Jimmy originally aired September 24, 1996.