Murder: By Reason of Insanity

In general true-crime films look as though they've been made in a hurry and rely on violent domestic scenes and acting histrionics to keep your attention. This one is different. Candice Bergen gives an excellent performance as the Polish woman, Eva, who has come to America with her Polish husband, a nuclear scientist, in search of a better life. Tragically, her husband,Adam,played by Jurgen Prochnow, is mentally unstable and finds it impossible to cope in a country where you're free to make your own decisions. Life was easier for him in Poland, where he simply had to follow the rules. As a result he turns into a complete control freak at home, even deciding at what time his wife should go to bed. He loves his two small children, but they too must obey all his rules. As his personality becomes more paranoid and aggressive, his wife turns to counsellors and the police for help as she tries to start a life for herself and the children without him. Adam cannot understand what's gone wrong, and decides that his wife is evil. Incacerated in a mental institution and divorced by Eva he realises that his only hope is to trick the psychologist in charge of his case, played by Eli Wallach, into believing that he's now penitent and cured. He succeeds, and as a result is free to wreak a terrible revenge on Eva, a revenge which resulted in a change in the law in America regarding the release of mental patients into the community. Despite the fact that there are very few scenes of real violence, Prochnow's Adam is terrifying and his brooding rage and obsessive, controlling personality linger in the mind long after the film is over. The trouble is, you just know that despite changes in the law people like Adam are always going to be very hard to stop.

This is a good film which shows the effect of deinstitutionalization in the U.S. Patients were released in record numbers without medical care, so the state could save some money. In 1979 Berwid, a patient who threatened his wife with murder, was released from Pilgrim State hospital, in Suffolk County NY. (You may "google" it for more information, a huge complex now vacant, which was built in the late 1800's to house the mentally ill). They also had a jail for the criminally insane, which is now in disrepair, as well as Kings Park Psychiatric Center.

Berwid is well-portrayed by Jurgen Prochnow, a Polish immigrant who, along with his wife(Candice Bergen) relocated to L.I., NY. As Ewa Berwid succeeds in her work as an architect, her husband finds himself threatened, and is having difficulty finding an engineering job. His frustration transforms into rage at his wife. He resorts to physical abuse, lawyers become involved, and Berwid is sent to Pilgrim State for psychiatric treatment. After a few months of good behavior, he receives a day pass, and takes the train back to Mineola NY, where his wife resides.

I will not divulge the ending, but this is a good film based on a true story. 9/10.

Made-for-television entry, well-directed by Anthony Page, concerns Polish couple who have immigrated to the States, only to have their marriage come to an impasse; the wife hopes to leave her violently uncontrolled husband, who plays upon her fears that he will eventually kill her. Psychological stories of marital warfare don't always work on film, yet this fact-based case study is given a serious, sometimes chilling treatment, rendering it more than just another issue-of-the-week melodrama. As the unhappy Berwids, Candice Bergen and Jürgen Prochnow do Emmy-worthy work; Bergen, in particular, is a revelation. Very fine, very involving film which, although it gives us a typically incompetent justice system, makes few compromises towards a tidy, TV-movie formula.

I saw this listed today in my TV Guide and decided to check it out. After reviewing the cast list I decided to TIVO it. It seemed vaguely familiar to me. When I saw Jurgen Prochnow's name as the star, I remembered him from a movie I had seen long ago. He was evil incarnate in his role. It was the first time I had ever seen him in a movie. He was unforgettable. After watching the beginning of this movie I realized they were one and the same. The rest of the cast is great, too. Eli Wallich, as always is super. This being about the same time he was in "The Executioners Song". Well worth a look. On FX Movies this week with out commercials. This movie is very similar to "A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story" (1989) (TV), another first rate TV movie.