Autopsie d'un crime

This has to be the best TV Movie ever created. Directed by the same guy who directed Xanadu....[??? How's that possible? He also directed WALMART: the High Cost of Low Prices, too] His direction of The Burning Bed is superb, to say the least.

You really feel as though her fear and terror are your own through claustrophobic cinematography in the scenes where she's being attacked. The dignity the cast and director were able to conjure for this sad story is far better than television deserves. The violence she imparts upon her husband gives her no satisfaction for she is not a malicious or vengeful woman.

I believe this movie has inspired countless women to leave abusive relationships since the first day it aired and more so as time has passed. Through it's ability to reach such a wide audience and it's star power, the attention it drew to the issue of battered women could be considered nothing less than a milestone.

When this movie first was on TV, my ex-husband came home from work and sarcastically asked, "What are you watching on TV?" I said there wasn't anything on.......I lied...I was watching it on and off.....but it frightened me so much on so many levels (one level was the husband in the movie treated his wife better than I had ever been treated)....I actually was living that abuse and had been for over 6 years...I believe it was because of this movie, that I was finally able to get out of that relationship. I can't say I got out that night, but it was only a matter of time before I did. It took me another 18 months to get out and away for good. It is on tonight in January 2008. I will watch again as a celebration that I am finally free of abusive relationships..and will never be treated that way again, ever!!

I grew up in Dansville and was very familiar with what happened there with Francine and the Hughes house. As a teenager, I couldn't really comprehend the psychological damage that was being done to her on top of the domestic violence. As an adult, and as a wife and mother myself now, it's shattering to watch again. To watch and know that it didn't even seem to cause an eyelash to twitch to some of the people she confided in. They knew. They accepted. They complied. I cannot imagine all of the pain beyond the physical that this woman suffered during those horrific years of her life. I was glad to know that she moved far away from the toxicity she had found herself in and was able to restart and reclaim her life and the lives of her children.

As for the film, Farrah Fawcett is simply brilliant. The directing is of a caliber that literally makes you feel as though you're in Francine's shoes. Sure, it's been associated with starting the Lifetime Movie of the Week trend but it is a Gold Standard that they wish they could live up to.

Some people seem to be judging this movie based on what happened more so than the quality of the movie. The movie, we must remember, is based on a true story (that took place in a completely different time and place than we know now). The events in the film are real, though certainly dramatized. So, the fact that the police don't help the woman and her family does not support her and how unrealistic it all seems only adds to the impact of the story since it is true. I won't say this is a perfect movie, and certainly it is skewed to make the wife seem completely right and the husband completely wrong (because it plays better for a TV audience to not have ambiguities); but, I don't think it's fair to judge the film based on things that really happened. To look at the events in this movie and not believe they happened is to miss the entire point of the movie. The people in this woman's life pretended not to see things and chose not to believe her. But these things do happen, whether we chose to acknowledge them or not.

It is refreshing to watch an actress finally get the dramatic role she deserves, instead of just playing eye candy in banal films that are forgettable.

There is a true story here, and Paul LeMat portrays the abusive and manipulative husband. This film does not sugar-coat domestic violence, and the verbal, psychological and physical damage done to this woman is unconscionable.

The audience is also made aware of the in-laws, and their denial (well-portrayed by Grace Zabriskie, as Fawcett's mother-in-law.) The children as victims of this unstable environment are affecting and tragic.

Overall an excellent film one may want to view with a friend caught up in such a horrible situation. NO woman should ever tolerate this treatment from ANY man. Domestic violence is still an issue in our "civilized" society, unfortunately, and needs to be recognized. 8/10.