Some guys just can’t catch a break. Handsome soccer coach and devoted teacher Jack McBride (James Van Der Beek) has just gotten out of prison after eight months on a statutory rape charge.
A smitten student at the girls’ prep school, we learn, had accused him of having an affair with her when he didn’t return her affections.
So, Jack decides to start over. But wouldn’t you know it, while heading to California, he gets into a car accident and is forced — forced! — to stay in the quaint town of Salem Falls until his car is fixed.
Luckily, the drunk who caused the accident has a daughter, Addie (Sarah Carter), who offers him free room and board and a job washing dishes until his car is back on the road.
Jack, who works in a T-shirt — but clearly should work in a burqa or something what with all that sex appeal — is immediately hit on by yes, another underage girl.
The smitten teen is the beautiful, Gillian, (AJ Michalka), ringleader of a group of girls who practice magic. Gillian is the richest girl in town and lives in a big, gorgeous mansion with her dad, the owner of a multi-national pharmaceutical company.
Thus sets the stage for “Jodi Picoult’s Salem Falls,” based on the best-selling author’s book, “Salem Falls.”
Yes, this does sound like every dopey Lifetime movie ever made, but it’s actually better than that — more complex than it seems on the surface.
For instance, Jack — who swears he isn’t interested in the teenage girls who seem to haunt him, literally — instead begins to fall for age-appropriate Addie.
But Addie, you see, is addled in the brain. Two years earlier she lost her eight-year-old daughter, whom she pretends is still alive.
When Jack decides to stick around Salem Falls because he’s fallen for Addie, he must register as a sex offender.
Does this discourage Gillian? Do witches wear black hats?
One dark nigh Gillian gets naked in the woods with the other teen witches and dances around a fire casting love spells on Jack.
Next thing you know she’s running out of the woods crying rape — and Jack’s the alleged culprit.
I mean, seriously, this guy is either really a rapist or is the unluckiest guy in many towns.
Gillian’s father, who’d already called a town meeting to get the child sex offender run out of town, is now insane with rage that Jack has allegedly raped his precious daughter. But all is not as it seems and things get pretty twisted.
Even though Picoult’s novel was published back in 2001, the story’s held up well enough to be a pretty decent TV movie — good news for Picoult’s fans.