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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 forensic evidence taken as fact. And a hysteria that was the 1980s equivalent of a Salem witchhunt.
For 1988's powerful, truth-based A Cry In The Dark, Academy Award winner Meryl Streep won Cannes Film Festival and New York Film Critics Best Actress Awards, along with her eighth Oscar nomination. Her work as Lindy, who lives the nightmare of seeing a wild dog carry off her infant and then endures a travesty of a trial by the courts and media, is remarkable. Sam Neill is her match as her tortured husband, Michael. Director Fred Schepisi transforms true events into a riveting movie that will haunt you for days.
Editor's Note
Meryl Streep and Sam Neill star in this documentary style film adaptation of the true story of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, an Australian couple who lived the nightmare of losing their infant daughter during a family camping trip. When Lindy (Streep) spies a dingo nearby, authorities launch a frantic search, but all they find is a torn, bloodied garment. The press, distressed by the mother's seeming "lack of emotion," and suspicious of her strict Seventh Day Adventist religious beliefs, begin to accuse her of murdering the baby. The sentiment against her begins to grow, and soon the whole continent is talking about the case in a malicious witch hunt. Despite the lack of evidence, Lindy Chamberlain is imprisoned; although investigators eventually reexamine her story, the damage is done: the innocent mother's relationship with her husband has been irreparably destroyed and she has spent over three years in prison for a crime she did not commit. This painful portrayal of the power of public opinion and political and emotional persecution is captured with steely intensity by Streep, she is captivating as the much-maligned victim of social injustice who is bolstered by her strong religious faith and stoic demeanor.
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