Strictly average movie

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

After watching a 20/20 program about Dianne Downs, they had played a little clip from the movie Small Sacrifices. I was absolutely horrified by this story, I couldn't believe how a mother could so coldly shoot her children and almost without thinking twice about it. But the movie had me intrigued, it's been over a year since Fawcett's tragic death, I heard that this was one of her finest performances so I decided to go ahead and check out the movie. Knowing before what the outcome was going to be, I just hoped that Small Sacrifices wasn't going to romanticize what happened as it was discovered that Dianne's motive was due to wanting her boyfriend to love her back. Hollywood sometimes likes to do damage to real life tragedies, but it turns out that they actually over all did it right this time and showed the true heart break that came from this story but ended up leaving with a little hope.On 19 May 1983, Dianne Downs drove to the hospital with a gunshot wound to her arm and her three bloody children. She claimed that an unknown assailant attempted to carjack her and shot her the children: Karen, Shauna, and Robby. Shauna was dead on arrival at the hospital. Eldest daughter Karen was badly injured, but survived suffering a temporary loss of speech due to a stroke after the shooting, but recovered sufficiently to serve as a witness in court against her mother. Diane's son was paralyzed from the chest down. Downs was eventually tried and convicted of murder, attempted murder, and assault. Downs had started a romance with a man, but he discontinued the relationship as he did not want children. Downs planned to kill her children to be free to pursue this relationship. Going to show the small sacrifices she had to make for the man she loved.I can't imagine what pain Farrah went through to channel this performance for this evil woman, she gave such an incredible performance, I was absolutely amazed. It's so sad she never made it really to the big screen, she was a true talent and beauty. The children actors also did a terrific job, Emily Perkins as Karen was great. I remembered her from the TV Mini Series IT where she pulled in a good performance, I'm surprised that she's not a bigger name now, but who knows the reason behind that. I'm glad they didn't glamour the story up, it was pretty hard to watch. I'm not sure if Small Sacrifices should have been as long as it was and I'm a little disappointed they skipped over Dianne's clumsy videos of her reenacting the carjacking, how she's laughing and giggling while her children are barely holding onto life in the hospital and one's life is lost. I thought that was one of the major keys into her being a suspect of her children's injuries and death. However this was a good movie, I would recommend it if you are interested in murderers or the story of Dianne Downs and her children. Watching the updates on the news to find out that her children are now doing fine and have moved on was wonderful, but so sad that they have to live with the fact that their mother wanted to take their lives for such a petty reason. Farrah gave a great performance and the film was well done and very realistic, not for the faint of heart. Much love and happy thoughts towards her children and the family that they will never have to go through this pain again and that Downs is locked away where she should be.7/10

Farrah Fawcett's Emmy-nominated performance is the centerpiece of SMALL SACRIFICES, a riveting, ABC mini-series based on the true story of Diane Downs, a cold-blooded woman who was sent to jail for murdering two of her three children. This teleplay presents Downs as the lonely, divorced working mother of three who appears on the outside to be a devoted and loving mother but as no qualms about putting her own needs first when the opportunity presents itself. While working at a post office, Diane begins a romance with one of her co-workers, Lew Lewiston (Ryan O'Neal)and things are going well until Diane learns that Lew doesn't like kids and has no desire to be a stepfather so Diane decides to kill her children. Fortunately, her daughter, somehow survives the brutal shooting and is taken into protective custody not only to protect her from further harm by her mother but to use her to help build a case to convict her mother. Fawcett gives the performance of her career...an icy, heartless bitch who shouts of her innocence throughout the proceedings, even though all evidence points to her and has the nerve to be baffled by the fact that her daughter wants nothing to do with her. O'Neal's role here is more in the way of stunt casting as he was Fawcett's real life romance at the time and is wasted in a thankless role, but there are two solid performances from John Shea and Gordon Clapp as the two police detectives caught in the deadly cat and mouse game of trying to slip Diane up in order to nail her for this horrendous crime. Despite it's almost three-hour length, I found this movie fascinating from start to finish, thanks primarily to a powerhouse performance from Farrah Fawcett who got the role of her career and ran with it.

After playing TV-movie victims for years, Farrah Fawcett is terrifically good (almost surprisingly so) cast as real-life child-killer Diane Downs, who tried to convince the police she and her kids were victims one night of a car-jacker with a gun. One is tempted to go on and on about Fawcett's multi-layered portrayal of a sociopath, yet this is a long movie--four hours with commercials--and Farrah has the burden of it resting on her performance (she carries it off with gusto). Ryan O'Neal is very strong, too, playing the lover who doesn't return her affections. A sad, violent story, but told with an intense, focused energy which makes it completely absorbing and ultimately moving. Farrah does Emmy-worthy work.

Here's TV doing true crime the way it should be done--slowly unfolding plot through character, threading the cops and perps stories together, good courtroom drama--it's spellbinding. Farrah Fawcett is exceptional as Diane Downs, the woman who manages to kill one out of three kids. The two surviving kids are also stand-outs, especially the small daughter who must choose whether or not to testify against the monstrously narcissistic Downs. John Shea is also good as the D.A. A must-see for crime buffs.