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The production is a family film, in a manner of speaking. It has two attractive parents and a bright teenage daughter and they're all living happily in a cozy little town.

Or so it seems. But as Arts and Entertainment Editor Bob Sokolsky points out, this is the 21st century and the Donna Reed/Robert Young families have left the building. They have been replaced by folks like the Stones of "The 10th Circle," the Lifetime network drama coming up on June 28. And these folks are involved in heavier matters than prom dates and dented fenders.

Their woes involve family solidarity, a possible rape, the death of a young man and frantic efforts to discover who did what and when. Sokolsky says the usual elements fall into place after that, making the entire story reminiscent of "any detective movie or series of your choice."

The result, he adds, is melodrama replacing subtlety and an overall weakening of the story created by Jodi Pilcoult in the novel from which this movie was adapted.

Sokolsky praises the drama's cast, but notes that the overall presentation has unhappily rejected most of its opportunities to excel.