Cries Unheard: The Donna Yaklich Story

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.