Customer Reviews

In a Child's Name Mini Series [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While this movie is incredibly long (was a three-part TV movie), it is brutally honest in showing the terminal flaws in our legal system. This film shows a sister (Valerie Bertanelli)seeking justice for her sister, and trying to follow her sister's wishes to raise her son rather than have him be a 'reward' to the man she knows murdered her sister in cold blood.Sadly, this film is so typical of our legal system! If you can stand the brutal honesty, it shows a great investigation and the doggedly stubborn Italian family doing what it does best; fighting for family. This film - by the way - did win an Emmy nomination; quite an honor for a film.

This is the movie based on Peter Maas' book - In a Child's Name. I viewed the movie after reading the book and what makes this movie exceptional is that it is one of the few movies which depicted an accurate version of the book. A few names were changed and the focus of the movie was on the victim's sister portrayed fabulously by Valerie Bertinelli. The movie is very effective in producing a lot of emotions in the viewer just as the book was. There is a lot to be learned from the movie - family love and support, the tragedy of domestic violence, communities pulling together for a good cause, the power of journalism in influencing court decisions, the judicial system ignoring what is in the best interests of a child, doing a thorough investigation of a person before jumping into marriage and finding out that they are a monster and finally - good does triumph over evil.

In a Child's Name is a disturbing story of violence and a sister's love. I recommend this movie as a learning tool for families of domestic violence to learn what not to do. It is hard to watch this story without asking yourself do you know somebody who is being misused. Michael Ontkean is very convincing as a coked up dentist who has lost control. And Valerie Bertinelli's portrayal a of greiving sister and aunt will move you to tears.

In the movie "In A Childs Name" Valerie Bertinelli played the role of the sister who had a feeling that her sisters boyfriend was not who he was letting off to be and she knew something wasn't right but she didn't know what, She tryed to talk to her sister but she would never tell. It wasn't till it was to late that they could do something about it and they had him investigated and thats when they found out what kind of monster he and his family really was after he was sentenced for his crime that his parents tried to take Andrew away from his family and was soon taken to court and fought for the custody of the baby and that was a long drawn out battle that they proceeded to try to trick another Judge into letting them adopt the baby by saying that his father was just off somewhere and that his mother died of natural causes and that plan fell through when the sister found out what was going on she put a stop to it and they got it where the father was not aloud to visit the child at all he was stripped of all parental rights and the grandparents was also stripped of all rights and the custody was ordered to the sister and he was legally adopted by the Cimarelli's.

all the reviews on this wonderful TV movie are accurate and very detailed. just want to add my two cents on how wonderful the entire cast is in this gem. Valerie Bertinelli just shines as the tormented sister who feels guilt for not knowing/seeing the abuse of her murdered sister. Christopher Meloni is so good as her supportive, loving spouse. it's nice to be reminded what a good actor he was before he began playing the bullying, smug, jerk that's he's perfected into a career now. the movie is sad, moving, terrifying in it's reality, and stays in one's memory for a long time. but what really makes it stick is the wonderful acting.

The Peter Maas book IN A CHILD'S NAME, a true-crime masterpiece, was not adapted well for this TV-movie version. I almost could understand why the filmmakers downplayed the sexual aspects of the story of wife-murderer Ken Taylor. But I don't understand why this TV-movie IN A CHILD'S NAME made the victim's sister the central character. You would think it would focus on the antagonist, but maybe they did not want to make a Charles Manson-style star of killer Taylor. If that's so, then the point of view of journalist Peter Maas, whose New York Times Magazine article prevented the murderer's parents from illegally adopting the victim's son, would have carried the film. Anyway, read the book!