"Sins of the Mother" (Lifetime, 8 p.m.) has an overly dramatic name, and there is plenty of drama. But really, it's less scandalous than it sounds, a touching and sometimes poetic story about forgiveness and love.
The film stars Jill Scott as Nona, a recovering alcoholic with a young daughter by a man she met in AA. She also has an older daughter LaShay -- or Shay, as she now wants to be called --- who's a graduate student. At the film's start, Shay has been asked to take a leave from her school in Iowa. She's profoundly angry and lashing out. She needs to deal with her issues.
With nowhere to go Shay (Nicole Beharie) returns home to Tacoma to stay with her estranged mother and little sister. Nona, building a new life, sees it as a chance for them to reconcile. But Shay, so repressive in her anger she yanks out pieces of her hair, can't bring herself to forgive or confront her mother.
The film is based on the novel "Orange Mint and Honey" (check out an excerpt here) and it tries hard to keep the book's lyricism and feeling. Nona, for instance, has a bountiful garden, always good for metaphor. It is a place of healing and prayer, a place of renewal.
Scott proves that she's a solid actress, here she's playing the mother of a 25-year-old (she's 37 and has an 18-month-old son) and you buy it. That quality she has, a mix of decency, compassion, dignity and strength, works well in this film for a character who has to be both humble and tough. Beharie is smart, with just the right amount of vulnerability.
Although the film is mostly about the mother and daughter relationship, it's also about Shay's personal healing, and part of that is a love interest with a younger man, an undergrad played Matt Ward (who look like he could be the son of actor Richard Brooks). The turns of that relationship make for a sweet, modern twist.
I think you'll like "Sins of the Mother." I could definitely watch it again.
Assistant Features Editor Adrienne Johnson Martin would like to have her life turned into an animated cartoon. 
