Locked in Silence (1999 TV Movie) User Reviews (8)

This movie was about my uncle.

[bfroggy326 · 7/10 · 25 March 2007]

My dad's brother (my uncle) was the real Steven. (My dad was "Jamie" in the movie). The movie was based on truth, but not everything that happened in the movie was true. For example, in the movie, Steven stopped talking because of a traumatic experience. But in reality, he does not remember the real reason he stopped talking. The real psychologist believes that it was a traumatic event, however, and things like that were actually happening in the area at the time, but there is no proof that he actually witnessed the event in the movie. Steven himself does not remember the event that caused him to stop talking; it was blocked out of his memory.

The actors and actresses did an excellent job portraying what my dad's family was really like. Marc Donato did an especially good job playing my Uncle Steve. My grandmother says he actually was very much like how he was in the movie, and my uncle Steve was happy with their performances as well. For those of you wondering whether Steve did actually regain his speech, he did. He talks now just like any other adult and now works for the railroad.

There are some "special features" at the end of the movie where you can see "the real people"...my uncle, and my grandma. I can't remember if you see anyone else from my family, but I know you at least see them. The story was also featured on the "Debra Duncan" show (a local talk show) in Texas, back when the movie was first coming out. If you have access to that show, you can see the real Steven, John, my dad(Jamie), and my grandma and grandpa (Lydia and Jim).

typical made to TV movie

[sunflowr · 6/10 · 9 May 1999]

Story about a young boy who is traumatized & decides not to speak after finding a murdered boy.

Actually, the movie is more about a dysfunctional family.

A nice movie, not too upsetting. It touches on several psychological problems of children..

ugh

[KateBrad · 3/10 · 29 May 1999]

It is a shame this is based on a true story. I bet the real story would be so much more interesting. I felt no symapthy for anyone in this movie, except a little bit of concern for the boy. There was very little sensitivity throughout the entire movie. I was shocked at the approaches everyone took toward an obviously traumatized boy. It ocurred to no one that finding a young boy murdered might damage the kid? And that they tried to reteach him how to talk, as if he never knew how, instead of finding the root of his distress! Thrusting him into environments where he was subject to taunting and torture, without a voice to fight back, apalled me. And that everyone seemed to blame the troubled child without concern for his obvious distress. I bet the story could have been told better. I hope the real story hasn't been tarnished because of an inadequate portrayal of it in a TV movie.

One of the slowest moving films ever

[baumer · 1/10 · 15 January 2000]

I will try to be brief about this film because I can't imagine anyone will ever really watch it. The only reason I even rented soemthing like this is because the woman I am dating thought it looked good and she recommended it. She has excellent taste so I agreed. Oh boy were we in for a shock. She hated it even worse than I did and she ended up fast forwarding a lot of the dialogue in the film just so we could get to the big secret. The problem with the movie is that it took so long to set everything up that by the end you can't wait to find out what it is just so you can turn the movie off and watch Sportsdesk. The young boys problem becomes annoying. Sure, at the end we can empathize with him and all that he went through but that does not make the film a good one. Trauma is a weird thing and I guess it affects everyone in different ways but I just didn't buy into why the young kid became unable to talk. Hey, here's an idea; if you are threatened by the local sheriff that seems to do everything the wrong way, tell someone. His backward ass tactics would have gotten him busted long before this movie does.

When the film is boring and moves at a snails pace and you don't really like any of the characters in it, then you have a problem. Locked in Silence should have stayed that way. It never should have been given the green light. This is proof that not all true life stories need to be told and made into a film.

Absolutely terrible! 0 out of 10

Locked In Silence

[holidays-1 · 4/10 · 24 March 2006]

The story is unique enough to warrant making a movie. However, this movie moved way too slow to hold a viewer's attention for very long. I wish this movie had been better because the story line is a very compelling one. Children respond to tragic events in many different ways. This movie does show that. This movie was frustrating because of the slow moving story. I watched it to the end because I really wanted to learn what happened. I won't sit through it again though. A good movie producer could make this story into a very riveting movie. Maybe there is a book on this true story. If there is,I highly suggest reading it. This story deserves to be told well.

Moving, sensitive, very well done!

[raf-15 · 10/10 · 21 July 2001]

Sensitive, moving, great acting! I normally do not like movies about kids --- but this was much, much more. Dan Hedeya as the sensitive, patient, therapist helps Marc Donato regain his trauma-suppressed ability to speak. Hedeya, one of the most versatile actors around, from the evil prosecutor in Hurricane to the comic Nixon in Dick, is at his best. Donato, too, is superb – a male Shirley Temple (without – perhaps – the song and dance). All in all, this is a wonderful film – in the 50s, it would have been a first-run theater film.

Locked in Silence Movie

[millwardcalvin · 4/10 · 25 December 2019]

I have purchase this from a seller and had it for Christmas today and the movie is extremely good. Marc Donato did a great performance for playing the role of Stephen. The people I feel sorry for in this movie are Stephen and the girl Lacey that he befriended with while he was in the institution. At the very beginning of this movie, Stephen felt really isolated and was a bit of an outsider to his own family (except for his mom and grandma who love him). When it came to the point where Stephen witnessed the dead boy's body, his older brother John is hiding nearby. He chases after Stephen and threatens him to keep his mouth shut about the body incident he witnessed due to John's problems with the local Sheriff. All this trauma has left Stephen really scared and afraid to speak to anyone especially with both his older brother and the sheriff powering over him and he had no one to turn to for help which was really heart-breaking to view and it never occurred to anyone what was really wrong with Stephen. Personally my criticisms for this movie are: I hated the way there was less sensitivity in this movie for example Stephen getting bullied and brawled by a lot of people (Including members of his family) and being accused of being the one at fault by his very much older brother Jamie where all this time he was the victim of some weird form of psychological abuse throughout the whole movie.

Secondly despite it based on a true story, the ending would have been better if John was the killer and Stephen never even had any apologies from anyone which was totally unforgivable since John sort of lied to Stephen leading him to believe he did it and all the time John knew it was the sheriff or unless he was protecting Stephen from the sheriff which I am totally confused on that part. Nevertheless despite the unfair elements I really love this movie.