TRUE GRIT

As sweeps-period fact-based fodder, both in the best interest of the children (NBC, Feb. 16, 9-11 p.m.) and till death us do part (NBC, Feb. 17, 9-11 p.m.) certainly live up to the cliches of keeping you glued to the set and put through the wringer. In the Best Interest of the Children is based on a late-' 80s custody case involving five Iowa children who wanted to continue living with their foster parents rather than return to the single mother who allegedly neglected them. Till Death Us Do Part revolves around a 1967 case handled by the famous real-life attorney Vincent Bugliosi, about a man convicted of murdering his wife and his girlfriend's husband. Both of these NBC television movies have aspirations to be more than cynical counter-programming to CBS' Winter Olympics coverage. In In the Best Interest, for instance, director Michael Ray Rhodes (Babies) is very good at depicting the hardscrabble lives of a just-barely lower-middle-class family led by Callie Cain, played by Sarah Jessica Parker (Equal Justice, L.A. Story). At the start of the movie, Callie and her five children have recently moved into a cramped, dingy little rented house in Estherville, Iowa. At first, Callie works long hours at menial jobs; her kids are taunted at school for wearing ''garbage-can clothes.'' Callie soon gives up and sits at home in a depressed stupor; a succession of crude boyfriends leaves a trail across her bed, and most of them pause to give one or two of the children a good swat in the head. Pretty soon, it becomes obvious to us that Callie isn't just a dispirited young woman-she seems clinically depressed, frequently unable to rouse herself to care for her family. Her oldest child, teenaged Jessica (Sarah, Plain and Tall's Lexi Randall), tries, heroically, to take over as the head of the house, but the state's human-services office steps in and whisks Jessica, her three sisters, and baby brother off to the foster care of a cheerful local farm couple, Patty and Harlan Pepper, played by Sally Struthers and John Dennis Johnston. (All the names in this docudrama, by the way, have been fictionalized.) After the physical and emotional pummeling these kids take in the film's first half, their chipper scenes with Struthers-she calls them ''my li'l pumpkins'' and cuddles them constantly-aren't corny: They're a blessed relief. I didn't even mind having my tears jerked when one of the children looks up at Patty and Harlan and whispers, ''Can we call you Mom and Dad?'' But then Callie, who has checked herself into a state psychiatric unit and been pumped up with can-do therapy, demands her children back. Patty and ! Harlan want, of course, to keep their five little neo-Peppers, and the kids prefer three square meals in a warm farmhouse to an erratic, wastrel mother in a drafty shack. A court battle ensues, featuring an even more blustery than usual Elizabeth Ashley (Evening Shade) as the children's lawyer. Long on both harrowing realism and teary sentimentality, In the Best Interest of the Children features solid acting and one standout performance-young Randall's brave, lonely Jessica-and is a model of all-out, reality-rooted melodrama. By contrast, Till Death Us Do Part is a TV movie scampering to catch up to the new standards in psychokiller portrayals set by Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs. Treat Wil-liams, having momentarily-and wisely-given up his vain quest to be a good guy in TV efforts like the short-lived series Eddie Dodd, here portrays Alan Palliko, a violent con man with ''eyes like he didn't even know you were there,'' as someone in this movie remarks. Palliko is shown to be the sort of fellow who, when his wife (Embeth Davidtz) leaves him, tracks the woman down and, on a busy California street in broad daylight, socks her in the jaw with a roundhouse right. A quick scene, it's also the most sickeningly vivid portrayal of misogynist abuse I've ever seen, and director Yves Simoneau (Memphis) deserves credit for literally not pulling any punches in the depiction of Palliko's cruelty. When evidence ties Palliko to two grisly murders, this brute comes to the attention of the L.A. district attorney's office, in particular one of its eager-beaver prosecutors, Vincent Bugliosi (Arliss Howard, of I Know My First Name Is Steven). Later well known as the man who prosecuted Charles Manson and his ''family,'' Bugliosi is depicted here as an idealistic straight arrow not long out of law school; he's shocked by the enormity of Palliko's crimes as his investigation proceeds. In the teleplay by Phil Rosenberg (based on the book by Bugliosi and Ken Hurwitz), Palliko confronts Bugliosi in a courthouse hallway shortly after being arrested. Fixing the lawyer with an evil stare, Palliko tries to make Bugliosi think they're kindred spirits: ''Only losers play by the rules,'' he sneers. ''You and me-we take chances.'' Director Simoneau lets us see that Bugliosi is really rattled by this confrontation-he realizes that the man he's prosecuting just might be a vengeful wacko. It's not often we see a TV-movie hero in such a vulnerable spot, but Howard pulls it off. His earnest-but-firm demeanor-sort of early Jimmy Stewart with a rough streak-makes Bugliosi an intriguing character, and a worthy adversary for Treat Williams' more dramatic villain. In the Best Interest of the Children: B+ Till Death Us Do Part: A-

You Might Also Like

• Television News Sarah Jessica Parker developing art ''Runway''
• News+notes Sarah Jessica Parker returns to HBO as a producer | Lynette Rice