Dysfunctional ‘Point’

A TV movie featuring a lot of vomiting does not, on its surface, hold much appeal. But this is Lifetime, and a story about mothers and daughters and their ambivalent feelings toward food is a subject its audience is likely to eat up.

“Hunger Point” (9 p.m., Lifetime) is a tale of a family coping with food issues -- specifically younger daughter Shelly’s anorexia. Her eating disorder is just the tip of the iceberg, however; soon the whole family is poised for a meltdown.

We’ve seen similar scenarios before in films such as “Ordinary People,” “Girl, Interrupted” and “American Beauty” and in books such as J.D. Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey,” so in many ways “Hunger Point” feels like a story we’ve seen many times. What makes this version of the dysfunctional family worthwhile is the outstanding performance of Susan May Pratt as Shelly, who is not only anorexic but by turns paranoid, obsessive and hysterical. She is so convincingly flipped out while hospitalized for her eating disorder, you would swear she is channeling Sylvia Plath’s institutionalized character in “The Bell Jar.”

Relative newcomer Christina Hendricks also gives a strong performance as Shelly’s sister Frannie, a role that is in some ways more challenging as it requires the portrayal of more subtle emotions. Barbara Hershey does a good job making the unsympathetic character of their mother, well, unsympathetic, while allowing an occasional glimpse of a warm heart beating under her icicle-thin exterior. (“Have some sugar-free Jell-o,” she tells fat-fighting Frannie.)

Together, the three actress- es do a fine job of capturing the seething-beneath-the-surface competitiveness between mother, daughter and sister for the title of “Fairest of Them All,” which motivates their behavior.

A lot of Lifetime movies play like a combination of a Hallmark card and a public service announcement, but thanks to its actress’ skill, “Hunger Point” manages to rise above the formula. One hopes the film will inspire mothers and daughters who recognize themselves in the characters to ditch the scale and dish up some ice cream.