I disagree with one of the controbutors who said no one is the villian in this movie. I believe Dan and his dad are the real villians. Dan for cheating on Kim and after getting caught dumping her, and his dad for suggesting alcolol for Dan's party. Considering Dan and Kim being together for two years and him being her first real boyfriend, the way he dumped her for someone else was irresponsible and unacceptable. Frankly Dan's partial scholarship should have been taken away from him.

Then there are Kim's friends. Nikki and Lisa It was Nikki's boyfriend that Kim injured in the accident so quite rightly Nikki was mad at her and initially wanted to have nothing to do with her. But Lisa was just an evil spiteful person right from the outset and enjoyed hurting Kim by blabbering about Dan and Heather, and also recording Kim's drunken escapade at the party.

But in the end Joey and Nikki forgave Kim for what she had done. This was one of the Lifetime movies which I quite enjoyed. It was not far-fetched or corny. It highlighted an ongoing problem, underage drinking and its repercussions. The acting was mostly good, except for Dan and his dad. They were both extremely annoying.

Most of their story lines are the same a similar story called party mom has already been made by them and the main characters look as old as their parents they do not look high school age. Other than Michael Michelle who is classic the acting isn't that great I'm a huge lifetime fan but they haven't put out many good ones lately in my opining they are struggling to come up with new material it seems I almost didn't watch it cause it sounded so familiar but I gave it a shot I'm not sure how they pick their actors but they need a better process cause the acting makes most of their movies bad now.

There was no single villain in this film about the pitfalls of driving under the influence. Martha and Tim Wright made an attempt to insist that the drunken kids spend the night in their home in lieu of driving. But it was certainly a lapse on the part of Marta and Tim to leave their car keys in plain sight for the use of any inebriated teenager.

The Wrights' son Daniel unceremoniously dumped his girlfriend of two years after Kim was not accepted at Stanford like him. He kissed another young woman at the party, then cravenly encouraged Kim to play chug-a-lug.

It was Kim who took the keys to the car and in her erratic driving left young Joey Portillo a cripple. But Kim as much as the Wrights eventually takes responsibility for her actions and triesto make amends with Joey and the Portillo family.

The only shortcoming of the film was the avoidance of confronting the current loose application of the law when it comes to DUIs in major American cities. The prosecutors in the L. A. and San Francisco especially have become so lax that the strong message of this film about the tragic outcomes of drunken driving gets lost in the politically-driving judges diluting the letter of the law. For the birthplace of MADD, that should be a black eye on California and as sobering an experience as viewing this fine film.