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Customer Reviews of A Cry in the Dark

PIERCING CRY
No body, motive or weapon. The facts in the Australian murder trial of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain didn't add up, but other things did. Bigotry against the couple's religion. Scattershot forensics evidence taken as fact. And a hysteria that was the 1980s equivalent of a Salem witch hunt...thus says the box on this riveting true story. <
>Director Fred Schepisi captures the media outrage that condemned a couple for a murder that didn't exist, as the couple's infant was carried off by a wild dingo. Receiving her 8th Oscar nomination, Meryl Streep is pitch perfect as Lindy. One can see however why the media didn't warm up to her story: she seems steely, almost unaffected, until her final statements in the courtroom. Sam Neill is equally superb minister husband, a man whose entire life is unraveling around him. It's a dark disturbing film and one can only wonder how "justice" could have been served in a "kangaroo court." A timeless, evocative movie.

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Sometimes, the truth and the reason are not in the same table!
Many people tend to forget this memorable performance of Streep, who made, to my mind, her fourth best artistic achievement after Sophie 's decision, Ironweed and Silkwood in that order. <
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>Powerful drama based on a true story around a woman judged unfairly as the murder of her own child when in reality was a wild dog the true guilty of this awful personal tragedy. Magnificent directorial effort of Schepisi backstage. <
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A Movie With A Timeless Theme
Michael and Lindy Chamberlain (Sam Neill and Meryl Streep) must endure the double horror of having their infant baby carried off by a dingo and then being convicted in a-- forgive me-- kangaroo court of the child's death. This movie, which grips you early on and never lets you go, sad to say, is based on a true incident that occurred in Australia in 1980. The Chamberlains, who are devout Seventh-Day Adventists, are guilty of being different. They are tried by both the public and media. Hysteria and rumor run rampant while reason and justice get lost in a rush to judgment.

With the possible exception of IRON WEED, Meryl Streep has never made a bad movie. She is perfect here as the mother who has hope against hope that the truth will out and she will be found innocent. With an awful haircut-- the old bowl over your head look-- and the additional weight she apparently gained (she is pregnant during her trial) she manages to almost look plain and frumpy. Sam Neill as her fundamentalist minister husband gives an outstranding performance as well. The scenes of the Australian outback are beautiful.

The theme is timeless: too often to be different is to be evil. If you are different, then you are not a person; and I can ignore the evidence and find you guilty of heinous crimes. Unfortunately, the Austalians in 1980 were not unique in this disease. One only has to remember the recent debacle of innocent inmates on death row in Illinois who were found to be innocent with new DNA evidence. Then there's Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in the 1950's. There's still questions about whether they were guilty of the crimes for which they were executed. The list goes on and on.