Family Sins

Kirstie Alley, you are one cold-hearted bitch.

So our dear sweet Kirstie plays Brenda Gleck, a woman who opens her home to foster kids out of the goodness of her heart. When the movie opens, Brenda is celebrating Mother's Day with a shit ton of kids. Everyone looks super happy and glad to be there, except for the one girl in the corner who just sits quietly, holding her child. After opening dozens of expensive gifts, daddy Alley asks the girl what she got for momma and proceeds to flip out because it's the most important day of the year! Kirstie calms him down and says it doesn't really matter.

Later in the movie, the sad chick is revealed as Marie, a foster child. She escapes with her son and tries to get some help. She keeps telling them that Brenda and her husband did horrible stuff to her, but no one will listen. They keep pointing out that the local newspaper did a story on what a great mother Brenda is so it must all be in her mind.

A few flashbacks reveal that Brenda is even crazier than previously thought. She and her husband own a bunch of rental properties and when people won't listen, she just sets their homes on fire and collects the insurance money. One particularly bad situation comes about when one of her tenants complains about roaches. Brenda can't be bothered to fix it, so the woman calls the health department. Three days later, her house goes up in flames. Brenda conveniently shows up, yelling about her white trash tenant ruining her precious home.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that she teachers her kids how to shoplift? Marie remembers getting caught outside a store and Brenda slapping her in front of the manager to make herself look better. When we see her taking back her Mother's Day gifts without any receipts, we quickly discover that her kids just keep stealing.

Brenda is not a big fan of landlord-tenant law either. When people can't pay or whatever, she just tosses them out and steals their stuff. They literally have a basement full of stuff belonging to people who rented from them before. She's pretty defensive of her “real” kids too. When her son-in-law decides that he can't handle this whackadoo family anymore, he takes off and files for full custody of his kids. Brenda gets her son to kidnap him, lock him in the basement, and beat the shit out of him until he agrees to be a good son-in-law again.

Then we have poor Nadine. Nadine was a friend of Brenda's who completely lost her shit when her boyfriend/husband took off and left her with a baby. Brenda lets her move into their home and help out around the house to pay her way. Help out around the house is code for “do what I say or we will rape you and beat you.” Nadine is also Marie's mom. One day when they leave her working outside, she runs away. A cop finds her, calls Brenda, and they run to get her. Once she goes back, they lock her in the basement again and beat her with an extension cord. Can I just say that seeing Kirstie Alley berate someone for folding towels wrong is the kind of thing that gives me nightmares?

Marie tries explaining to her mother what's going on, but her mom is super confused. Even after Brenda goes to jail, Nadine keeps asking about her. She also talks about how loving the family was and how one boy promised to take care of her daughter, even as he was raping her.

Marie goes to a DA, but he doesn't move fast enough for her so she goes to the press. They interview the Glecks and Brenda helpfully brings out the newspaper clipping about what a great foster mother she is. Marie then flashes back to the moment when she learned she was pregnant. Brenda kept calling her fat, and she started beating the crap out of her when Marie said she was pregnant. Her son jumped in the middle, and I'm pretty sure that Brenda's husband knocked her up. Another site said it was the son, but Brenda asks her husband if it's true and he kind of shrugs and goes back to eating his cereal, so I am pegging him as the baby daddy.

The DA finally gets off his ass and they raid the house, finding Nadine and a bunch of stolen merchandise in the basement. The “bad” son-in-law tells him what he knows and they lock up a bunch of the family members. That doesn't stop Brenda though because she calls one of her guys and gives him a coded message to either threaten or kill Marie. No worries though because she totally gets prison time and so do her sons and husband.