The Interrogation of Michael Crowe

The main child actor is astonishingly good; a really heart-rending performance. A couple of the cops are good too. Great to see Ally Sheedy again. Unfortunately, the script is too on-the-nose and the lawyer is a really bad actress, so it brings it all down to a 3-star (out of 5) film. Overall, it's sort of entertaining in a "disease-of-the-week" TV movie kind of way, but there are many better films you could be watching...

Cheryl (Ally Sheedy) and Stephen Crowe (Michael Riley) are loving parents to Michael, Shannon, and Stephanie in Escondido, California. One night, someone stabs Stephanie to death. The police is puzzled by the lack of evidence of a break-in and suspicion immediately falls on the family. Detective Baker interviews transient Richard Tuite for an unconnected issue and doesn't even consider him for the case. They isolate the surviving kids from their parents. With relentless interrogation and trickery, they gain false confessions from Michael, his friends Joshua Treadway and Aaron Houser.

Based on the real murder in 1998, this TV movie is at a lower level. It doesn't have the production value to be truly compelling or intense. It would be melodramatic if there isn't a real story behind it. The interrogations are tough to watch due to their inherit unbalanced dynamics. They also drag on for too long. In a way, the audience is stuck inside the room along with Michael and that has some benefits. It shows how a confession could be coerced. It's an uncomfortable watch. The legal wrangling after that in the second half works well enough.

This movie seriously has some of the best acting I've seen especially by the child-Michael Crowe character. In fact very good acting all around except by the mother character. Her acting skills in my opinion are overly dramatic at times. But aside from that, the movie is a good conversion from the real life events. It is a sad event in real life but the story is movie quality. Again, Good movie GREAT acting. I highly suggest this to all types of movie lovers.

Firstly what a great, emotional performance from the young man playing Michael.

I would love to say I'm shocked by this story, but having looked into so many myself, it isn't that surprising at all.

Certainly reminders of the Jon Benet Ramsay case, but with vast differences in wealth and how the family were treated immediately.

Scary and thought provoking!

I just watched this and found it a very well made documentary drama ... There were Excellent performances by all characters in the movie .

I had never heard of this true story before but it is very intriguing portrayal of the heart wrenching tragedy that the California Crowe family endured back in the 1990,s... It displays the abusive investigative methods and powers of a shoddy police investigation that had no compassion or support for the victim and family ...

I didn't really see that it was shot in Ontario Canada until looking it up here ... Now I,LL have to see if it's coming on again to see if I recognize any landmarks ! I noticed as well that there was a more recent updated incident in the case around 2012 or 2013 ..? Going to go research that now too ... Basically I am here to say if you haven't seen this movie ..... Do it