ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

angel_girlevaandeva i think this a well acted film.it is very heart breaking.Cindy and David's daughter Jaclyn was kidnapped and strangled.Cindy and David got the blame.Davey is taken in to care as Cindy and David was accuse of physically and sexually abusing Davey.Cindy finds out shes pregnant and gives birth to a beautiful little girl named Carly Marie Dowaliby.Carly inherited her middle name from her older sister Jaclyn.the social services take Carly away and only let them see her 4 hours a week with super vision.after they was allowed to see her full time 24-7.Carly stayed at Cindy's mum place.Cindy and David get arrested 4 killing there daughter and there families struggle to get enough money to get them out out but they do.Cindy and David went to court and Cindy was free but David was sentenced 45 yrs 4 Jaclyn's death.In the end they prove that he was innocent and they didn't find the killer but there lawyers told them to move on.also they got there children back and in the end went camping.

wdzorro This is based on a true story of the Dowalibys and the murder of their 7 year old daughter, Jaclyn, for which they stand accused. What happens to them, how the "system" tries to beat them down to submission and the lengths to which the prosecutors are willing to go to win, is the basis of the movie. Shannen Doherty delivers a gripping portrayal of Cindi Dowaliby, as first she fights the system, then she has to fight her husband. This may well be her best performance. I don't know how you pick the supporting cast in this story. There were no "small" parts (I watched the movie initially because a former newscaster from my home town was in it and may have had the only small part). Ed Asner, Dixie Carter, etc., would be classified as supporting cast, I guess, and they played their roles to perfection, Asner as the retired detective and Carter as the mother-in-law who finally comes to grips with her shortcomings and discovers that she has great affection for her daughter-in-law. The circumstances surrounding the investigation, the arrests, trial, and unexpected outcome all tie together so quickly that there are no "slow moments" where your mind can wonder without losing part of the plot or the puzzle pieces. But this isn't Hollywood, this is real and you feel you're watching a retrospective news report, except for the personal exchanges between the Cindi and David. When they can't agree on how to handle the initial verdict, your not sure David will listen and it might cost him dearly. If you don't know how the situation ended (as I didn't), you might think it had a much different ending. A truly riveting movie, I found myself wishing I knew what subsequently has become of the Dowalibys. I could definitely watch it again.

Robert J. Maxwell A Chicago couple, Dillon and Dougherty, are falsely accused of killing their daughter. People begin to wonder if they did it. The police investigate and find suspicious evidence. The couple are maligned by the public and accused in the press. The cops speculate that they are Satanists and have ritually murdered their own daughter. They are charged and brought to trial. They are represented by publicity-seeking lawyers who give them bad advice and bill them for $100,000. The evidence presented against them is twisted or hidden by the police. Fabricated intimations of sexual abuse are presented. Their other child is taken away from them and put in a foster home. Dougherty is pregnant and gives birth to find her baby removed. Verdict, she didn't do it but he did. He goes to the slams with a sentence of 45 years.In the last third of the movie, with Dillon in jail and Dougherty wondering what to do next, we see people who have been antagonistic now slowly coming to the couple's defense. Witnesses admit to having lied. Other facts are brought to light that, finally, result in Dillon's release. The killer is never found, though the movie gives us a thorough whacko as a plausible perp.This is a weeper from beginning to end. Nothing seems to go right for the couple. Oh, there are a few happy moment, maybe a party where everyone is glad to be together and tearing up with joy, or some point of evidence in their favor is discovered and people hug one another. But it's never long before someone rushes through the door with more bad news and all the faces are frozen in tragic disbelief. (Usually a fade to block follows.) There isn't necessarily anything wrong with moving tragedies, although I can't imagine what pleasure we get out of seeing people suffer. There's plenty of tragedy in Shakespeare too. I suppose whatever we find interesting about tragic stories lies in the way they're told. "Oh, but I am Fortune's fool!" Romeo cries after killing Juliet's brother. Here we have Dougherty running in her robe through a hospital corridor, screaming, "Where's my baby???" There isn't any ambiguity or irony in the story -- as I'm sure there must have been in the real life events on which it's based. People are either good or bad here. Or else they're bad, then they turn good.The film isn't aimed at exploring human quirkiness, or the way things work out. It's aimed at wrenching tears from the audience. The actors provide first-rate role models. I can't remember the last movie in which I saw so many tears. There are rivulets of tears. Showers of them. Cascades of them. A veritable Niagara of them. A Lake Lacrymose of them.Well, I'll give one example of the efficiency with which the movie is crafted. Dillon and Dougherty hire a Chicago cop who works on the side as a private investigator (Ed Asner). Asner is sympathetic to them but he doesn't really accomplish much. He seems to be in the movie not because of his importance to the case but because he can provide the victimized couple with a kind of philosophy -- "Learn to live with it," which is okay -- and because he suffers from colorectal cancer, so we can watch him take his medicine, double over with pain, and finally pass away.What's frustrating about the movie is that in focusing so intensely on the suffering of the couple, it sidesteps one of the more important issues that it raises -- the function of gossip in regulating private lives.Gossip is a strange thing really. If we call it "gossip" it's bad, but if we call it "public opinion" it sounds acceptable, at the very least. Of course we all have convictions about issues that may or may not be justified. (As I write, Michael Jackson is once again being brought to court accused of molesting a young boy, and I wonder how many of us thrilled at the news and immediately assumed he was a pedophile.) But gossip isn't all bad either. It's like water. When it's properly controlled it's a community asset. We need gossip to keep each other in line. It helps us to maintain public order. But, like water in a flood or a tsunami, it is ruinous to a village when it rages out of control.This is a movie that's okay if you're not looking for too much in the way of insight into human nature. It's done so cleverly that, given its goal, it's hard to argue with it.

janni_me This film just fantastic.. I LOVE IT!! All that kinda drama, and the way the american police/whatever treats them, it's the truth - and a hard truth!! I love this film... Can't say it enough..!! And Shannen Doherty's my favourite actor, so.. That's a bonus!!! I'd love to own this film... :o)