I heard about the real-life story this film was based on when it was mentioned briefly on Channel 4's Big Fat Quiz, I was most interested to see it, from Golden Globe nominated director Fred Schepisi (The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Roxanne, Six Degrees of Separation, Fierce Creatures). Basically in Australia, deeply religious Lindy Chamberlain (Oscar nominated Meryl Streep), her Seventh Day Adventist pastor husband Michael (Sam Neill), their two sons, and their nine-week-old daughter Azaria are on a camping holiday. The family are in the Outback enjoying the landscape at Ayer's Rock. One night, the family are invited to a barbecue with some fellow campers, the baby is left sleeping in the tent with the door unzipped. During the barbecue, a cry is heard, Lindy returns to the tent and sees a dingo with something in its mouth run out. She is shocked to find that Azaria is missing, she realises that the wild dog must have taken the child. Everyone joins forces to search for the baby, without success, and the search continues across the Outback the following morning. A subsequent inquest rules her account of what happened to her child to be true. The story is released to the press, and public opinion soon turns against the Chamberlains, as their religious beliefs make them, especially Lindy, appear too stoic, too cold-hearted, and too accepting of the disaster that has befallen her. The couple's beliefs are not widely practised in the country, then an over-the-top rumours spreads, the public is quick to believe they decapitated their baby with a pair of scissors as part of a bizarre religious rite. Law-enforcement officials find new witnesses, forensics experts, and circumstantial evidence, including a small wooden coffin Michael uses for un-smoked cigarettes. The investigation is reopened, and Lindy is charged with murder. Seven months pregnant, she ignores her attorneys' advice, to get the jury's sympathy, and appears emotionless on the stand, convincing onlookers she is guilty of the crime of which she is accused. As the trial progresses, Michael's faith in his religion and his belief in his wife disintegrate, and he stumbles through his testimony, suggesting he is concealing the truth. In October 1982, Lindy is found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, while Michael is also found guilty and given an eighteen-month suspended sentence. Over three years later, police are searching for the body of an English tourist in the Outback. A small item of clothing is discovered, it is identified as part of the clothing worn by baby Azaria, recovered early in the investigation. Lindy is immediately released from prison, the case is reopened, and all convictions against the Chamberlains are dropped. Also starring Bruce Myles as Ian Barker, Q.C., Captain Scarlet's Charles Tingwell as Justice James Muirhead, Nick Tate as Detective Graeme Charlwood, Neil Fitzpatrick as John Phillips, Q.C., Maurie Fields as Justice Denis Barritt and Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Stuart Tipple. Streep in her black wig with a convincing Australian accent does well as the tough, humourless woman, Neill is equally good as her gloomy husband, it is one of the "stranger than fiction" harrowing stories that was a big deal in the day, the film deals with many of the key elements, including the media circus and the court case, it is a bit TV-movie feel and slow at times, but an interesting biographical drama. It was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Screenplay. Good!
Review of A Cry in the Dark
