User reviews

This little-known TV film is about a young high school track runner who gets sexually assaulted by her coach. Since she idolized and trusted her coach too much, she was unable to disclose that fact at first. Simple plot, yet it somehow managed to keep the viewer interested till the ending. Ariana Richards (Jurassic Park etc) plays the lead character with enough sincerity, but all the other actors had a bad time. I know I'm not to expect too much from these productions but I have to say that the script is really bad. There are some dialogues that seemed to have been written by simply non-professional people. Given a better script I honestly think the movie would fare better. The good thing about this film, although, is its simple and straightforward style of storytelling without falling for any exaggerations. I guess that's the reason that it won't appear awful to the viewer in a single watch.

Race Against Fear has to be one of the most moving TV movies I've seen for a long time. All of the performances from the main actors were superb, especially that of Ariana Richards (Mickey Carlyle), William Bullimer (Coach Kurt Ansom), and Susan Blakely (Margaret Carlyle). Ariana in particular put on an extremely emotional performance, with facial expressions to match. She portrayed the emotions that Mickey was feeling perfectly, and you could easily believe that she really HAD been raped, so realistic was her performance.

RAF is an incredibly realistic movie, due to the moving performances from the cast. Bullimer came across as a rapist incredibly well, and you hated him more and more as the movie progressed. Blakely also put on an emotional performance as the mother of the raped girl (Mickey Carlyle), and you felt increasingly sorry for the Carlyle family because no-one believed them about the rape.

All in all, RAF is a great movie. It is both moving and full of suspense, as you are continually unsure if Ansom would be prosecuted for the rape, due to the lack of witnesses, evidence, and belief in the claim. I thoroughly recommend seeing this movie.

It's funny how my opinion on this movie has changed since the first time I saw it. I caught it on NBC when it first premiered and boy, did I think that it was good. I made the mistake of not recording it and for a while after that I looked EVERYWHERE for it. Couldn't find it but finally Lifetime came to my rescue. Lifetime is known for helping me out with those movies that I can't find anywhere else. I watched it again the other night and guess what, I hated it.

The plot is simple. The movie starts off good but soon travels downhill. It takes a while for the movie to actually get going, but it finally does. Oh, and it has the one thing in movies that bugs me the most: it starts off showing what will eventually happen. That irks me to no end. I mean I knew what was going to happen, but it still frustrates me when that occurs.

So, it drags on, and it drags on, and it drags on. It's entirely too slow.

I feel bad criticizing the acting here, but it has got to be done. I liked Ariana Richards in 'Jurassic Park' no matter how minor her role was. She is just awful here. Seriously, I haven't seen such bad acting since I went out and rented a Bette Midler movie. Oh, yeah, I don't like Bette Midler. Richards is just so...so...boring. She puts absolutely no emotions into her words, which results in her character being not likeable. I at least didn't like the character. Susan Blakely, on the other hand, is really good. Good acting, good character development, no complaints from me in that area. William Bumiller wasn't anything great.

This plot has been done so many times that it needs to be put to a rest. 'Race Against Fear' is slow-moving, predictable, and has some very, very bad acting. I would not advise anyone to watch this. I'd suggest another TV movie: 'She Fought Alone.' It's basically the same idea and I know that I said that all movies along this line need to stopped, but it IS good; a lot better than this horrible thing.

So cute this actress in this movie(Ariana Richards). And she plays the role so perfect that I was really Impressed. Storyline and acting perfect. And the Coach to impressed me with good acting. It was not One boring moment in the whole movie. Why don't they make movies like this anymore. I Give it a 8 out of 10.

The film centers on Mickey Carlyle (Ariana Richards), a teenage track star who is sexually assaulted by her well-known and respected coach Kurt Ansom (William Bumiller).

When nobody believes her, Mickey and her mother Margaret (Susan Blakely) take matters into their own hands to stop Coach Ansom's behavior.

Cast

Ariana Richards as Mickey Carlyle Susan Blakely as Margaret Carlyle William Bumiller as Coach Kurt Ansom Teryl Rothery as Assistant District Attorney Christina Valdez Tracee Ellis King as Kaycee King Scott Vickaryous as Brad Meyers Julie Patzwald as Julie Vacarro Marisa Rudiak as Tina Beale Alandra as Ms. O'Neill Ken Camroux-Taylor as Principal Ed Miles.