(Released in Australia as "Evil Angels")
Directed by Fred Schepisi based on the novel Evil Angels by John Bryson
120 Minutes (PG-13)
Images
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Cast
| Meryl Streep | Lindy Chamberlain |
| Sam Neill | Michael Chamberlain |
| Dale Reeves | Aiden, age 6 |
| David Hoflin | Aiden, age 8 |
| Jason Reason | Aiden, age 11 |
| Michael Wetter | Reagan, age 4 |
| Kane Barton | Reagan, age 6 |
| Trent Roberts | Reagan, age 9 |
| Maurie Fields | Coroner Denis Barritt |
| Bruce Myles | Queen's Counsel Ian Barker |
| Lewis-Fitzgerald | Stuart Tipple |
| Brendan Higgins | Andrew Kirkham |
| Nick Tate | Detective Graeme Charlwood |
| Mervyn Drake | Inspector Michael Gilroy |
| Vincent Gil | Derek Roff |
| Bill McCluskey | Greg Lowe |
| Debra Lawrance | Sally Lowe |
| Bruce Clarkson | Les Smith |
| Charles "Bud" Tingwell | Justice James Muirhead |
| Sandy Gore | Joy Kuhl |
| Kevin Miles | Professor James Cameron |
| Gary Files | Professor Malcolm Chaikin |
Reviews
Roger Ebert
*** (out of 4 stars)
"A Cry in the Dark" takes time to marshall the case against Lindy, and the time to destroy it...Fred Schepisi, who directed and co-wrote the film, has used Australian public opinion as sort of Greek chorus in the background. He cuts away to tennis games, saloons, filling stations and dinner parties, where the Australian public tries Lindy and finds her guilty...
In the lead role, Streep is given a thankless assignment to show us a woman who deliberately refused to allow insights into herself. She succeeds, and so, of course, there are times when we feel frustrated because we do not know what Lindy is thinking or feeling. We begin to dislike the character, and then we know how the Australian public felt. Streep's performance is risky, and masterful.
Vincent Canby, The New York Times
Fred Schepisi's "Cry in the Dark" is based on the sort of true stroy beloved by supermarket tabloids that feature headlines about mothers who boil their babies for breakfast....
"A Cry in the Dark" has much of the manner of a television docudrama, ultimately being a rather comforting celebration of personal triumph over travails so dread and so particular that they have no truly disturbing, larger application.
Yet "A Cry in the Dark" is better than that, mostly because of another stunning performance by Meryl Streep, who plays Lindy Chamberlain with the kind of virtuosity that seems to redefine the possibilities of screen acting....