TELEVISION REVIEW : One Girl and AIDS: Ending the Secret

“Angelie’s Secret,” third in the CBS News series “Before Your Eyes,” is quite simply television at its best: important, dramatically real and deeply affecting.

Over an eight-month period, cameras recorded the lives of a remarkable 11-year-old girl, her parents, friends, neighbors and teachers, as she made the decision to reveal what she and her parents had kept hidden: that she was infected with the AIDS virus.

Viewers are allowed to make their own judgment about what this film says about the issue of AIDS in this country, as the real-life drama, unobtrusively narrated by Julia Roberts, unfolds.

Angelie weighs the burden of her secret against her fear for the consequences of going public. “This lie is really hard for me to keep,” she says, opting to tell.

Near-panic and anger ensue, and a neighborhood divided is caught with painful clarity on camera, as fearful parents confront Angelie’s family and friends drop away.

Equally poignant, however, is the support, acceptance and love from old and new friends, among them other children with AIDS and HIV, Angelie’s pediatrician, a tour bus driver who becomes an AIDS activist after getting to know his young charges, and Neil Willenson, the compassionate founder of Camp Heartland for children with AIDS.

A disturbing twist is the family’s seeming acceptance of “Dr. Jerry,” an oral surgeon/artist/clarinetist who says he can cure Angelie’s AIDS, if he can raise the hundreds of thousands of dollars it will take to build his special “bathtub.”

If you were turned off by the first episode of this series, “Kristen Is Missing,” a sorry tale of a teen runaway presented with portentous, voyeuristic “you are there” hype and a soggy country music soundtrack, don’t tune out this time. Like the second episode in the series, “A Heart for Olivia,” this third film, dignified and piercingly effective, is light-years away from the first.

* “Angelie’s Secret” airs tonight at 8 on CBS.