I am just finishing viewing this film on Lifetime as I write this. The program listing did not specify whether it was a true story so I looked up both Wikipedia and IMDb to see if it was and, if so, what the real facts of the case were since the film was so dramatically incendiary that I could not believe that the facts had not been manipulated. I could not believe something this horrible could happen in modern America. Imagine my surprise to discover that it was not only a true story but that the facts were very much presented as they happened, documented by individuals who had actual knowledge of the real case.
That makes this a very important film and I'm surprised it was made 13 years ago and I never knew about it. But I was shocked to see that you list the average rating as only a 6.9? But I read one review after another and they are all 9 or 10 star reviews. So I keep reading to find the ones that knocked it down. There were none, only a few that had not bothered to give any rating at all even though the text of the review was glowing. There are some 23 reviews posted for this film, all of which sing its praises, all but a few giving it 9 or 10 stars, the few giving no rating at all. No rating does not mean zero stars, but evidently IMDb counted it as zero and averaged this all together to produce the low total. IMDb needs to revise this rating system to make it accurate. This film needs to be revised to a 9.5 rating, which is what it is.
So happy to know though that the story had a happy ending and that the accused parents were exonerated and freed and the family reunited, even if it did take more than ten years and deprive the two boys of their childhood and the parents of the joys of raising their boys. I have always been a huge fan of Virginia Madsen. Ever since I first saw her in her teen movies, I thought she was destined for super-stardom and always wondered why it never happened for her. Then "Sideways" happened and she's been doing great ever since. So happy for her.
That makes this a very important film and I'm surprised it was made 13 years ago and I never knew about it. But I was shocked to see that you list the average rating as only a 6.9? But I read one review after another and they are all 9 or 10 star reviews. So I keep reading to find the ones that knocked it down. There were none, only a few that had not bothered to give any rating at all even though the text of the review was glowing. There are some 23 reviews posted for this film, all of which sing its praises, all but a few giving it 9 or 10 stars, the few giving no rating at all. No rating does not mean zero stars, but evidently IMDb counted it as zero and averaged this all together to produce the low total. IMDb needs to revise this rating system to make it accurate. This film needs to be revised to a 9.5 rating, which is what it is.
So happy to know though that the story had a happy ending and that the accused parents were exonerated and freed and the family reunited, even if it did take more than ten years and deprive the two boys of their childhood and the parents of the joys of raising their boys. I have always been a huge fan of Virginia Madsen. Ever since I first saw her in her teen movies, I thought she was destined for super-stardom and always wondered why it never happened for her. Then "Sideways" happened and she's been doing great ever since. So happy for her.