Confiance aveugle

This is an excellent, heart wrenching film; I cry every time I see how devastated those children were with the murder of their loving mom and the trial of their father. This film, more than any other film depicting a true crime story, takes one through the tumultuous upheaval that a victim of a violent crime suffers(in this case, these boys are the victims of their mom's murder by their dad.) Other true crime story films depict the violence or the plight of the defendant. As a former prosecutor and prison counselor, I know first hand that the victims of crime are too often ignored by the criminal justice system. This film hits an emotional home run in telling the victims' stories. The relationship between Maria Marshall and her sons is the cornerstone of the film, and it makes one realize the depth of suffering one endures with so senseless a crime. Her beauty as a loving mother is contrasted with Robert Marshall's self absorbed obsession with himself and his needs. Caught in the middle are three innocent children, devoted sons to both parents, believing with "blind faith" in the innocence of their dad despite the overwhelming evidence unfolding before them. Despite its length (4 hours), the film and the book by Joe McGinnis are worth your time. The 20th anniversary of Maria's murder is September 7, 2004.

I have seen this TV movie twice - and even though it seemed a little dragged out - I thought that the three sons were wonderful - not just as the sons and their reactions to their father - but all of CD) whatever, and he starts mouthing the words, and then recalls being in a car with his (now dead) mother, and she joins in the song and they spend a special time together. I loved the song, but I do not know who sings it or who wrote it, and would like get it. It's "hook" is 'Its a long way home". Can anyone help me on this? It is by a group I think and is on an album, but I couldn't catch the name from the TV movie.

Thanks.

Actually, I found this movie to be very good. Granted, it was long but on a snowy Saturday afternoon it was very entertaining. I say this because I think the acting was excellent. Robert Urich did a fantastic job as the self-centered father. The casting for all the characters was also very good It was intriguing how the whole story unfolded and kept me very interested. Also, I thought it was very important to show how the mother's death (and their father's possible involvement)effected the sons. It is one thing to deal with the death of your mother but to then have your father implicated in her death was done meticulously. The interaction among the three brothers was very interesting. I would definitely recommend this movie.

I voted this 7/10 because I like made for TV true crime movies, but it has its flaws.

It's about the murder of Maria Marshall (Joanna Kerns) in 1984 at a rest stop along the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey where her husband, Rob Marshall (Robert Urich), has stopped to examine a tire that he thinks is going flat. He is hit in the head by an assailant. She is shot in the back. The motive appears to be robbery though nothing was taken.

I just rewatched "Echoes In the Darkness", and that true crime film was by far the better made and more suspenseful film with much smarter villains. I don't really blame the production that much as the widowed husband is beyond goofy and stupid. You can only do so much with a true crime film if you have an uninspiring villain. After his wife is murdered, all Rob Marshall can talk about is Felice Richmond (Robin Strasser) with whom he was having an affair and was planning to marry after he left his wife. He seems to openly pine away for Felice MUCH more than he is mourning his wife, which makes him unlikeable to his friends and alienates his grown sons. Then there is the 1.5 million dollars in life insurance he just recently took out on his wife and his own mounting money problems. 1.5 million dollars would be about five million dollars in 2025. Complications and suspicions ensue.

The movie tries to drag out the proceedings longer than needed. There is an entire scene about the Marshall's 20th wedding anniversary, two years before the murder, that makes the family and the marriage seem quite happy. Was this the true state of things, or was this just a mirage? It's never clearly stated.

Then there is just the overall rather weird tone of the film. The first half of the film takes on an oddly spiritual tone while overdoing the deifying of the victim.

There's lots of acting talent on the screen, including an early performance by Johnny Galecki of Roseanne and Big Bang Theory fame. Dennis Farina takes on an unusual straight-arrow role as the prosecutor.

If you like true crime I think you'll like this, but you may have the same small complaints about the production that I had.

This is a well-acted and absorbing drama, with appealing and talented actors. The piano soundtrack by Laurence Rosenthal was absolutely beautiful -- poignant and evocative. Robert Urich was very good as the weak and self-absorbed husband, and everybody in the movie was watchable, really. To me, the most tragic thing about the aftermath of Maria Marshall's murder was that her sons couldn't even look back on happy memories for comfort. In one scene, the boys are watching some old home movies of their parents and themselves when they were just toddlers. Their mother is laughing and playing with them in the swimming pool, while the father is roughhousing with them and laughing into the camera. But these sweet scenes are fractured by the knowledge that the mother they loved so much was murdered by their father, and they can no longer watch them with a normal feeling of nostalgia, or look back in sentimental memory at their family life.