Justiça Cruel

This is a powerful drama based on real life events. Maggie Stutter is shocked when her teenage son Eric is incriminated for the brutal assault of a neighbour. Even more so when he is actually convicted of the crime. She sets out to clear her son's name with the help of top lawyer Dan Pendleton. Her job as a pediatrician's assistant becomes jeopardised in the ensuing turmoil. It also affects both Maggie's relationship with her long-suffering boyfriend and that of her son with his girlfriend Donna, played by Michelle Williams of Dawson's Creek fame. As the film develops the 'good cop, bad cop' method of investigating the case takes on more sinister proportions. With the District Attourney under pressure to provide a conviction, the victim is persuaded by the police to give eye-witness testimony in an effort to convict Eric. This provides the basis for the prosecution's case and is a shocking example of how power can be abused.

I have yet to see Marilu Henner play in a bad movie and this is no exception. She would stand out in a crowd of 100,000. She does in this movie. Regardless of how beautiful or intelligent others are around her, she seems to out do them in all aspects.

This is a true story that will break your heart. It might not be the best produced but it certainly will hold your attention. A normal teenage boy is out with his parents on a restaurant, nowhere close to a crimescene. Through a series of stupid policework and power corruption he is pointed out as the criminal and thrown into a world of misjustices, misinterpretations and selective evidence gathering. The heart gripping aspect of the storyline is that if this could happen to that boy, it could happen to anyone. Noone more unlikely to have committed the crime could have be found and still he was charged, like a scapegoat brought out to bring justice. The movie is also a psychological lesson in how a victim's eyewitness testimony overrides all common sense and evidence. Like all true stories you can't be sure it is going to end alright. See it for yourself.