Hunger Point on AllMovie

Obsessed with the belief that a slender figure is the most important thing on earth, domineering mother Marsha Hunter (Barbara Hershey) forces her two daughters Frannie (Christina Hendricks) and Shelly (Susan May Pratt) to adhere to rigid diets and exercise regimens. Any extra poundage is subject to cruel ridicule by the manic Marsha, while her passive husband (John Getz), as cowed by his wife as everyone else, offers no comfort or solace for his beleaguered daughters. Marsha's well-meaning but tragically short-sided view of feminine attractiveness drives one daughter into a mental hospital with a psychosomatic eating disorder and the other into a desperate act of self-destruction. Based on a novel by Jillian Medoff, the made-for-cable Hunger Point premiered January 13, 2003, on the Lifetime network.