It is worth watching "Mommy's Secret" (a.k.a., "My Mom Robs Banks") for the disguise used by soccer mom Anne Harding when she is robbing banks. If ever one wanted to call attention to oneself, it would be in her fake goatee, trench coat, and ski cap. And her getaway vehicle of choice for the robberies: her son's bicycle! To put it mildly, Anne must have had a lot of luck in her heists, based upon her attire and planning.

The filmmakers devised a clever scenario about the desperate widow Anne robbing banks in order to pay off her wayward son Kyle's gambling debts. Anne works closely with the sleazy underworld figure Quinlan, who would appear to have a romantic interest in Anne. Clearly, Quinlan is leveraging Kyle's bad luck at gambling to his own advantage in co-opting Anne into robbing the banks.

The most interesting character in the film is Anne's daughter Denise. A star soccer player of the Brookwood High School Bobcats, Denise is in position to win a college scholarship. She is also savvy enough to recognize that her mom is up to some shady activity. Some of the best scenes are when the wily Denise is relentlessly questioning her mother, and Anne has to tell a truckload of lies to placate the curious daughter.

The filmmakers inserted a deeper layer to heists that is revealed towards the end. The rug is pulled out from the audience, and new light is shed on the adventuresome life of a thief. Soccer mom by night and bank robber by day, Anne demonstrates that love of a mother for her children would appear to be boundless based on the nonchalant manner and the disguise of the century of Anne Harding.

Of course there were huge holes in this plot and the inept police and FBI who were responsible for arresting the real mobster were laughable. I found the soccer star daughter Denise (Sarah Grey) most irritating from the opening scene when she starts asking her mother Anne (Cahrisma Carpenter) a continuous stream of endless and curious questions about her mother's activities and receives double talk from Anne.

Mom and two (2) teenagers lost their father a year ago but they somehow are able to maintain a lifestyle in their multi million dollar estate home on mom's part time jobs of being a hair dresser and casserole maker.

Most irritating about this made for TV movie was the background dramataic soap operatic music score which had the reverse effect on me to maintain a level of suspense. Really? As bad as I am making this movie out to be, and the dialogue is near bearable it does have a few twists and turns and a happy ending so it is an okay time waster.

The secret that is. So you may know Charisma Carpenter from her role in the Buffy TV show. She grew up - well she matured. She can't play a teenager anymore obviously and unfortunately probably only gets weird roles likes this one more often than not. She was a side character in one of the Expandables movies. But other than that, you probably didn't see her in much.

And I would suggest that you shouldn't watch her in this either. Not really worth your time (even if you consider one "twist" towards the end). Weak script, drama of the week, overall rather generic and weak in the dialog department. I won't judge the actors by one performance, but one thing is for sure, this isn't their best work (I know for sure when it comes to Charisma and I hope the same to be true for the others)