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A Cry in the Dark (1988)
(Released in Australia as "Evil Angels")
Directed by Fred Schepisi based on the novel
Evil Angels by
John Bryson
120 Minutes (PG-13)
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Images
Cast
Meryl Streep
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Lindy
Chamberlain
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Sam Neill
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Michael Chamberlain
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Dale Reeves
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Aiden, age 6
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David Hoflin
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Aiden, age 8
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Jason Reason
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Aiden, age 11
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Michael Wetter
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Reagan, age 4
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Kane Barton
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Reagan, age 6
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Trent Roberts
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Reagan, age 9
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Maurie Fields
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Coroner Denis Barritt
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Bruce Myles
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Queen's Counsel Ian Barker
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Lewis-Fitzgerald
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Stuart Tipple
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Brendan Higgins
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Andrew Kirkham
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Nick Tate
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Detective Graeme Charlwood
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Mervyn Drake
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Inspector Michael Gilroy
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Vincent Gil
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Derek Roff
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Bill McCluskey
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Greg Lowe
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Debra Lawrance
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Sally Lowe
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Bruce Clarkson
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Les Smith
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Charles "Bud" Tingwell
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Justice James Muirhead
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Sandy Gore
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Joy Kuhl
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Kevin Miles
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Professor James Cameron
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Gary Files
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Professor Malcolm Chaikin
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Reviews
Roger Ebert
*** (out
of 4 stars)
"A Cry in the Dark" takes time to marshall the case against Lindy, and
the time to destroy it...Fred Schepisi, who directed and co-wrote the
film, has used Australian public opinion as sort of Greek chorus in the
background. He cuts away to tennis games, saloons, filling
stations and dinner parties, where the Australian public tries Lindy
and finds her guilty...
In the lead role, Streep is given a thankless assignment to show us a
woman who deliberately refused to allow insights into herself.
She succeeds, and so, of course, there are times when we feel
frustrated because we do not know what Lindy is thinking or
feeling. We begin to dislike the character, and then we know how
the Australian public felt. Streep's performance is risky, and
masterful.
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Vincent Canby, The New York Times
Fred Schepisi's "Cry in the Dark" is based on the sort of true stroy
beloved by supermarket tabloids that feature headlines about mothers
who boil their babies for breakfast....
"A Cry in the Dark" has much of the manner of a television docudrama,
ultimately being a rather comforting celebration of personal
triumph over travails so dread and so particular that they have no
truly disturbing, larger application.
Yet "A Cry in the Dark" is better than that, mostly because of another
stunning performance by Meryl Streep, who plays Lindy Chamberlain with
the kind of virtuosity that seems to redefine the possibilities of
screen acting....
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