... because the film's depiction of a sociopath is just too realistic, the government case workers are overworked but care and try to be fair within the constraints of the law, the attorneys work hard for their clients but are not about to stick out their necks, and the judges are a mixed bag. Some are truly impartial, others are easily influenced by the good old boy system. If this wasn't a true story and the Lifetime channel writers had gotten a hold of it, the ending would be the villain busting out of prison, doing a commando style raid on the heroine's home in the middle of the night, and her ironically killing him with one of his own barbells. But I digress.
This film is basically in two parts and is a long film but one that keeps your interest. The first half of the film is how Teresa Silvano, of Italian Catholic background and a dental hygienist, gets mixed up with soft spoken dentist Ken Taylor, with those Ken doll looks. He's big on shows of affection, and in the midst of a divorce, and after a whirlwind courtship, he marries Teresa. But all is not well. You see Ken has two ex-wives not one, is still bedding the soon to be second ex whenever she will allow it, calls 900 numbers for sex talk, is an embezzler, main lines cocaine, and is always trying to seduce other women to build up his ego. In short, Ken is a sociopath, and a pretty good one at that.
The trouble really starts on the honeymoon in Mexico though. There Teresa is assaulted while she is sleeping, and almost beaten to death. Ken is initially jailed for it. He claims to the angry Silvano family that three guys in ski masks burst in on their hotel room and assaulted and robbed them. He claims the Mexican government arrested him because they are corrupt. In fact, he probably paid them off and they let him go because they are corrupt. The Silvanos can't get over how Teresa is a swollen broken mess requiring a lengthy hospital recuperation and Ken only has a couple of wounds. From this point forward Ken is tolerated by the Silvanos only because Theresa says Ken could not have done this thing and she remembers nothing of the attack.
Teresa has a baby, and when he is five months old she finds evidence that proves Ken was the person who beat her up on her honeymoon. Plus Ken's just under the surface explosive temper that just smolders keeps her on edge. Heck it kept me on edge too. So you just know one day he is going to erupt and finish the job he started in Mexico. He does. Yet he never blows his cool in front of the audience. He's always got some smooth answer for everything. Well, even in the days before DNA, the police have seen plenty of guys like pretty boy Ken, and they are having none of his story after Teresa's body is found, which Ken didn't really even try to hide when he left it by the side of the road in Pennsylvania. It's like he's been smooth talking his way through life this long and just thinks he can keep on doing this forever. The justice system metes out a 30 year sentence. And now the question is what to do about Teresa and Ken's baby.
Thus begins the second half of the film. The real star of the show, Valerie Bertinelli as Teresa's little sister Celeste. begins a legal battle over custody of Teresa's baby with Ken's parents, who are the only people on the planet that believe Ken has been unjustly convicted, that he killed in self defense - with nine blows with a barbell? - because to believe otherwise is to believe they raised a monster on milk and cookies. The just world syndrome just won't let them do that. So how does this work out? Watch and find out. And don't think that Kenny boy is through messing with people's lives just because he is behind bars either.
From this point on, and to some extent all through the film, this story has been just not about crime and custody, but about rural versus urban America, Protestants versus Catholics, essentially red versus blue America more than a decade before that phraseology entered the vernacular. Ken's family are small town Protestants from Indiana, and the Silvanos are Italian Catholics from Staten Island, each with all of the culture and the support of their communities that come with it, and they just don't get one another. Highly recommended. It will very much keep your interest. This is not just another chick flick.
Finally, note the continually supportive husband of Celeste - eighth billed Christopher Meloni as Jerry Cimarelli. With his long hair and still 20-something looks I barely recognized him. He is now probably the most visible member of the cast with his long time role on Law and Order SVU as Elliot Stabler.
