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This is a typical wife-abuse movie which is well acted. The main problem with this production is the casting of Jaclyn Smith. She does a creditable portrayal-however as an obviously intelligent individual, she has to portray someone who does highly illogical things that someone of her intellect wouldn't.

This is the story of a battered woman in fear of her life who elicits the help of two friends to kill her husband. She is arrested and tried for murder, convicted, and sentenced to 40 years in prison. The story is narrated by Jacklin Smith's character in jail as she tells her grown up son what happened to his father. Although a very suspenseful look a domestic abuse, the movie follows the traditional Lifetime TV conventional formula of the weak, helpless, ignorant female who is the victim of circumstance and mistreated he husband and by the law. All men in the movie are portrayed as sexist jerks except for her little boy who would do anything to make his mother happy. All the women in the movie are portrayed as weak and passive, helplessly letting men step all over them. So her husband's a cop, that's no excuse for not calling the police and having him arrested when he hits on her. She calls her sister, who's as weak and helpless as she is. Didn't she ever think to call the police and press criminal charges? They may be her husband's friends and colleagues, but if it's a domestic violence call and they have to make an arrest, then they will. And if she had so much money to throw at hit men, couldn't she have gone to an attorney and asked for help in filing a divorce? She never once talked about getting a divorce from her husband. When she tries to leave him with the help of her sister, he says she can't take the baby. Well, if she can't take the baby, couldn't she just leave the baby behind and flee for her own safety? I mean, I know it's a maternal thing to look after your children and their well being, but you can't help them if you can't help yourself. And also, why didn't the people at the shelter help her when her husband came and dragged her away? Because those women are helpless, ignorant fools too! So she stayed with her husband to try to protect her baby and what happens: she kills her husband and gets put away; the baby is now a grown up young man off to start college and begin his life. He walks away free while she stays behind bars. She says she stayed because she loved him and tried to block out all the bad things,but I can't help but wonder if she also stayed because she's a gold digging freeloader? This movie makes Donna Yaklich come across as a stupid, gold digging bimbo who helplessly lets a man kick her around while making no rational attempts to get help for herself except cry to her little sister and stepdaughter who are too stupid themselves to help her. Why didn't her sister testify at the trial? She was a witness too. The most compelling part of the movie was the end, when her son tells her "someday when you're free and will come for you and we will go see the ocean together" since that was always her dream. She looks at the old woman, also an inmate, and knows she may grow old in jail and her dream may never come true. Then she says in narration, "if a man kills a his wife, he gets 6 years, if a woman kills her husband she gets 20 years and I got 40 years". Well, yeah, don't blame yourself for being brainless and stupid, blame it on society and the law. This was a good attempt to make viewers feel sorry for Donna Yacklich.

In the real story as told on the ID Channel's true crime series "Evil Stepmother," Donna Yaklich allegedly, both physically & verbally, abused her stepchildren, especially the youngest, which was her 5 year old stepdaughter. Also, during the autopsy there was no evidence found of steroid use in Dennis Yaklich's remains. Moreover, the decease's family accused Donna of stealing $11,000 from his parents & that she was motivated by greed. Dennis had $325,000 worth of life insurance.

This poorly made movie failed to get the facts. Donna Yaklish was proved to be a liar. In fact, she abused her stepchildren when her husband was at work. On the TV show "Evil Stepmothers," her stepdaughter claims for the record that Donna threatened and beat her. While Donna is portrayed as prisoner in the home, she actually led a very active social life, which included cheating on her husband. She stole money from her husband's parents. No one ever saw bruises on her even when she wore revealing clothes. The autopsy showed no steroids in her husband's body. After her husband died, she kicked her stepchildren out of the house and kept the insurance money for herself.

This film is not only a slander to an innocent man, but it's a disservice to women who are real victims of domestic violence.

but the truth is, no woman should EVER endure this torture from her husband.

While Yaklich's reputation has been marred as having planned this out (to collect insurance money) this does not mean she deserved to be beaten and emotionally abused by her husband. Yes, he was a vice cop; that does not give him carte blanche to treat everyone as subordinate, which he apparently did.

There is a brief appearance by Hillary Swank, as Donna's stepdaughter. Brad Johnson and Jaclyn Smith fit the roles accordingly, and if even half of this film is accurate, Donna's husband was a monster.

This film is educational, and helpful for women's issues. Whether or not the victim received money, in the end, is a moot point. Donna deserved a stable marriage, and instead endured years of abuse. This is NEVER acceptable. 8/10

If you want to watch a fictional movie then fine. if you think it has any relationship to the truth it doesn't. IT is filled with lies. No steroids were ever found to have been used by the husband/ she forged checks and ruined him financially/had multiple affairs and lied throughout. If they want to play this as fiction fine but lies pretending to be truth is deplorable. ASk the children of this poor guy about how wonderful or supposedly abused this killer was

I am shocked at the manner in which some people view domestic abuse. It seems that if the woman is being abused, she did something to deserve it and the punishment is light. I believe that Dennis Yalkich was a bully and abused his position as a police officer. It is a known fact that he intimidated his co-workers and would stop at nothing in order to get his way. Why didn't others report him? Are you kidding me? Would you report someone who might come and terrorize you and yours? Where could Donna go? 'Leave her child and flee for her own safety'?? What mother in her right mind would leave her child with a monster? The injustice and unprofessional manner in which the judge acted is such a poor example of our justice system. While I think that the movie could have been 'better', I still thought it was good enough to watch on 2 different occasions. I've read nothing but support for Dennis and how he was the 'victim' here. I see a lot of other victims, those who sympathize with those who abuse their positions and take advantage of others.

This woman was a horrific child abuser and murder that murdered her husband and then destroyed his reputation. Her own son wants nothing to do with her. This move was fictional in its' entirety. She was anything but a victim.

Halfway through watching it, I discovered that it was supposed to be based on a true story. I made a Google search and found that the reality was totally different to the portrayal in this TV drama. Even though it claims to be based on a true story, it isn't. That was very misleading. Regards to the facts of the story, one wonders why they made this rubbish and omitted what actually happened. The acting was good, which is why I voted two stars.

I remember my mom telling me a story about a women who was beaten to death by her husband in her hometown in Portsmouth, VA. Folks in the small neighborhood heard the man beating his wife. In fact, the beating was so severe that mom said it sounded as if he was chopping wood. However, it was during the era when people didn't interfere with a man "disciplining" his wife. The man got less than 5 years for the murder. Similar to the facts in the Donna Yaklich Story -- folks who could have made a difference stayed loyal to the old myth that what a man does with his woman is his "business" -- no matter how terrible. I'd like to think we've grown more as a society, however, my perception is that lawsuits against law enforcement agencies has been the main factor in changing laws that affect the abuse of women. As with everything else, it's a matter of money and politics. I wish Donna hadn't felt so helpless, and had taken greater steps to protect her life via the legal system.

Jaclyn Smith, arguably the most beautiful of Charlie's Angels--though not especially the best actress of the bunch--goes the 'abused wife' route in this undernourished made-for-TV movie. She's a young woman who, after two dates with a single dad/narcotics officer/ex-bodybuilder, decides to move into his house and act as best friend to his miserable daughter. Brad Johnson is the widower who is described as sweet and gentle, yet we can see from the get-go that he's overly-intense and a little dangerous. One comment from a friend about his shrinking muscles has Johnson injecting himself in the bathroom and popping pills, all of which hopes to explain his violent behavior towards Smith, but I didn't buy it. As presented, this telefilm is lopsided and badly handled. Johnson's character is clearly a handful even before Jaclyn marries him, and her character's stupidity in falling for his little-boy tricks is a turn-off for the audience. Although based on a true story, this tale of possible vengeance follows a tried-and-true pattern; nothing which comes out of it is remotely surprising or enlightening. It exists only to exploit the problem of spousal abuse--and to give Smith a meaty acting role.

Donna was never a victim, she mistreated her stepdaughter and murdered her husband for money and revenge! This movie is a lie! It is unacceptable that they made a film to denigrate the image of the husband murdered by the ambition of this unfortunate woman! The autopsy proved that he was not on steroids!

Well, apparently you can hire two hitman to kill somebody and still be innocent and everybody sympathize you! How? Guess what! The victim was a man and the person who hired to kill him was a woman!

That was the story which this movie claims to be based on!

Seriously?! Cries unheard? Well, definitely the 11 women of jury had heard her enough. And everybody believed the best police officer with no history of violence was violent toward a woman who killed him and took the insurance money and had fun with several bulky lovers.

That guy wasn't around to defend himself, and she also didn't have any substantial evidence to prove he was violent.

But she had one enormous advantage; EMOTIONS!

Nice job.

'Cries Unheard: The Donna Yaklich Story' (1994) is an American made-for-television drama film starring Jaclyn Smith as Donna Yaklich and Brad Johnson as Dennis Yaklich. The film's powerful themes of domestic violence and abuse are only let down by some tedious scenes.

The film is said to be based on a true story. However, Vanessa Yaklich, one of Dennis and Barbara's real children who is not present in this film, has spoken out about the supposed veracity of the story as she stated that Donna's claims were an "outright lie." Whatever your own opinions about it, I find that the point of this film is about domestic abuse and how difficult it is for a woman to get her voice heard in a patriarchal society, especially during the period when this film was first released in 1994.

Some reviewers here on IMDB have also pointed out that there seems to be a plot hole in the fact that Donna could have done more to leave Dennis or reported him to the police or another agency. Dennis was an officer himself so she must have felt that the authorities would be on his side. Also, these reviewers fail to understand that Donna's real struggle is her fear, she was absolutely fearful of Dennis and what he would do to her or her sister if she left him. It was also a different world back then as reports of domestic abuse filed by women were not taken as seriously as they are now.

Whether you believe her or not, this is Donna's story and it is a profound and important testament to the traumatic, often violent, effects of domestic abuse. In my country of Malta, where domestic violence and femicides are on the increase, Donna's story is as important today as it was in 1994.

This true story shocked me with the fact that women are given longer prison sentences than men for killing. Women receive 40 years for killing a husband and men get from 2 to 6 years. WHY IS THAT? The same goes for the wages that men receive over the years, vs women. Jackie Smith(Donna Yaklich) gave an excellent performance in her acting as Donna Yaklich. Brad Johnson (Dennis) made you hate him beyond words, the way he treated his wife. However, there is always a better way to solve a problem in a marriage when the husband becomes a Frankenstein.(even if he is a policeman) Having someone kill for you is no solution to any problem and only makes matters worse. Having to sit in a jail cell for 40 years and think about your horrible decision is WORSE! Donna Yaklich should have screamed HELP, while her husband was busy lifting his WEIGHTS!

Unless you have walked that path of abuse it is really hard to say what is rational and what is not. I know from experience that all you do is try to escape and when there is no out because he comes after you every time then your mind begins to think of any means out for a normal life. It is sad when I read the comments of others about yelling HELP etc. because she did when she went to a shelter and asked his friends for help. The only thing to do is to look for red flags in a relationship and get out at the first sign of violence. She should have left when he threw the can at her but unless you know about abuse and violence you have no idea of what you are in for.

Typical battered wife movie overlooks the main point in that it offers virtually no corroboration for Donna Yaklich's supposed abuse at the hands of her husband, a decorated police officer, and instead attempts to justify her decision to hire two bumbling petty crooks to gun him down in cold blood by showing, well, nothing. A scene of the husband forcibly removing her from a battered woman shelter begs the question: did no one at the shelter make any attempt to notify the authorities that he had essentially assaulted and kidnapped her? Isn't that what shelters are for? Endless scenes of him lifting weights (and obviously not Brad Johnson) and steroid taking do little except pad out the running time. The story is obviously told from one point of view only, but then since the other point of view was gunned down by the first POV there isn't much to tell.