--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > The movie was CRY IN THE DARK. Her character was > unsympathetic and she did > not show emotions traditionally expected of a mother > whose child was > missing, and Streep played it so inch-perfect that > people thought she was > the character herself. Streep's perfection in acting > makes other to label > her as a cold technician with no heart. But I always > thought that she acts > with all heart.
Hmm, interesting. I did find the character sympathetic, precisely *because* she didn't conform to the image people would expect of a mother. Not everyone wears their emotions on their sleeves and IMO that's exactly why Lindy Chamberlain was convicted - because she didn't fit the stereotype of helpless female. I realize that the film is just a film and as such, much of it is speculation, (who knows what really happened?) but it does show a lot about how people are swayed by how they *expect* a person to behave in such a situation. There was also a huge prejudice over people's perceptions of that religious group (were they 7th Day Adventists? I don't remember, but I know it wasn't one of the more popular Christian faiths, and people had a lot of weird ideas about their religious practices.) The whole story reminds me a great deal of the Susan Nelles case here in Toronto. Susan was one of a few nurses accused of murdering young babies at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in the 80s. They could never prove the babies were actually murdered because there was a whole combination of unusual circumstances happening at the time (more than the normal number of very young, very sick babies with heart problems on the wards at the time; the fact that the drug (digoxin)supposedly delivered to these babies deliberately as overdose can sometimes apparently occur naturally - or be amplified - in the bloodstream after death and so on.) So, she and her coworkers were never actually sent to trial, but there was a huge investigation of the whole thing with experts from all over the place trying to figure out what the hell happened. In many peoples' minds, Susan was guilty as sin, but it was never proved - one of the things that had people pointing the finger at her was that she remained cool and collected throughout the whole thing and had a gallows-type humour that might point, in some peoples' eyes, to guilt - she was heard, after another baby had died, to make a remark along the lines of "Two out of three ain't bad" or words of that kind (I don't remember exactly). To me, that's just sick humour that someone in the health profession might use to help themself deal with a horrible event, but most people wouldn't get that. ______________________________________________________________________ Web-hosting solutions for home and business! http://website.yahoo.ca
