The Interrogation of Michael Crowe

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!

This film recently aired on Court TV and it's a grim true story of how California police used intimidation to attain a false confession from an innocent 14-year-old whose sister was killed. This family, the Crowes, was victimized twice, once by the killer, and then by the police who destroyed their lives. This film shows the interrogation filmed in very stark lighting where you can't even see the actors eyes. Ally Sheedy portrays the mother. A warning: this is a VERY depressing film, as the police brand Michael guilty based on the evidence that he likes to play Dungeons and Dragons with his friends. For anyone who's ever been falsely accused this is a must see. And it's interestingly relevant as the Central Park jogger case just released 5 innocent kids after 10 years in jail. How many innocent people sit in prison now falsely convicted? We'll never know the true statistics of our injustice system.

This is an outstanding performance with a full range of emotion and portrayal of a teen boy, from slightly surly to loving, from confusion through desperation, to damaged, toward recovery. It's all there from the opening scene through to almost the end. The scenes of the interrogation itself are among the most harrowing, and Mark is excellent. Make-up did good work here to show the physical toll, on his face. His body language was very good in these scenes. Later, the anguish of his experience is captured perfectly in the scene with his mother when she wants him to go to the video store with her.

This is a good little movie (congratulations Court TV) with strong performances by all of the cast, including the rather creepy portrayal of the detectives getting their way in the interviews.

But for me, Mark's work was splendid.

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...

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.