First of all, let’s set the record straight. Soccer Mom Madam is not a soccer movie. But its provocative title is going to occupy any search for the keywords “soccer mom movie”, so I am posting this review as a public service to soccer fans. 🙂
Consider this film another notch in the tally stick of Lifetime movies that pretend to empower women. In this case, Soccer Mom Madam normalizes and glamorizes prostitution and its protagonist, Madam Anna.
The Story
Anna (Jana Kramer) is a gorgeous young widow with 2 children. She has no education, not even a high school diploma, but she’s a hard worker with a brain. She doesn’t turn tricks herself, but she starts off as a receptionist in a massage parlor. She reads a book on business, figures out how to increase revenue, and starts her own prostitution ring for very high end clientele.
The movie emphasizes that Anna is an entrepreneur deftly running her own business. Her number one principle is to take care of her call girls, and she emphasizes to them that she really works for them, not vice versa. But when her star performer tries to go out on her own, Anna has her thugs take revenge.
Of course, Anna eventually gets caught and loses everything. Storing a million dollars in cash in shoe boxes in your closet is usually not a good business practice. Anna finds redemption rescuing pigs, which surprised me because I thought homeless pigs had a real future at the butcher shop.
The story is well-told and is based on the case of Anna Gristina, who in 2012 was charged with running a prostitution ring in Manhattan. Gristina pleaded guilty to a single count of promoting prostitution, and as a first offender, she was sentenced to six months in jail. It appears that in real life, she was a hockey mom, not a soccer mom.
The Soccer
There are 2 scenes of soccer where Anna and her cohorts watch her young son play. It’s really just a background to establish her bona fides as a soccer mom. Anna signs up to hawk 1,000 raffle tickets for the team, which tells you right there that her nail salon is a front.
We can blame American politics and marketing for identifying and labeling the “soccer mom market”, leading to click bait movie titles like this one. But maybe it will bring more readers to my site!
In Conclusion
Soccer Mom Madam is not a soccer movie. It normalizes and glamorizes prostitution as a way to make big bucks by catering to the fantasies of old wealthy men. Maybe prostitution is the only way for many people to make a living, and maybe it should be legalized across the USA.
5 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 5
Resources:
- Released: 2021-06-06 (Lifetime TV)
- This film was hosted on my library’s Hoopla service, an inexplicable use of my county’s tax money.
- IMDB
- Director: Kevin Fair
- Stars: Jana Kramer
- Watch the Trailer
