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Review
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Powerful drama about sensational real-life court-case
concerning a rape in a bar in which on-lookers cheered and
jeered and did nothing. Foster is superb as brassy victim.
Viewers should always keep in mind, however, that this is
Hollywood doing the social conscience thing. Why should
that matter? Hollywood never strays too far from its own
conventions. Elements in the real case that would disturb
the purity (and banality) of the good-vs-evil tension are
invariably ignored, leaving the viewer, perhaps, unfairly
satisfied at the resolution of things. The danger in this
can be illustrated by films about Satanic Ritual Abuse
cases made in the 80's. The first films dramatized the
horror of discovering that children had been severely
sexually abused and assaulted at a "reputable" day care.
The day-care owners were suitably sinister and devious. A
few years later, once the truth emerged about how a group
of naive and ambitious prosecutors created an atmosphere of
hysteria and implanted the stories of abuse into the minds
of the children, Hollywood did a film on the same subject
reflecting the new consensus. Suddenly, the prosecutors
and social workers were devious and sinister, and the
day-care workers were portrayed as good, decent victims of
hysterical persecution. The point is, these people were not
hiding during the collection of facts that made up either
case. The film-makers simply chose to play to
stereo-types. The viewer should keep that in mind when
watching any film that purports to be "a true story".
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