Australian screenwriter, producer and director Fred Schepisi's seventh feature film which he wrote with Australian screenwriter Robert Caswell (1946-2006), is inspired by real events which took place in Australia in 1980. It premiered in Australia, was shot on locations in Australia and is an Australia-United States co-production which was produced by producer Verity Lambert. It tells the story about a thirty-one-year-old Australian mother named Alice Lynne Murchison Chamberlain.Distinctly and subtly directed by Australian filmmaker Fred Schepisi, this quietly paced and somewhat fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the main characters' point of view, draws a judicial portrayal of an Australian father named Michael Chamberlain who went with his wife, their sons and their daughter named Azaria to a city called Mount Isa (1923) in the state of Queensland, Australia and how a baby coat and inventions caused a persecution of a family. While notable for its atmospheric milieu depictions and cinematography by cinematographer Ian Baker, this dialog-driven and narrative-driven story about Australian history was made more than four centuries after the Republic of Florence (1115-1532) became a hereditary monarchy, the name Australia was written in a treatise (1545) and Her Most Excellent Majesty Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) named a former North American monarchy Virginia (1584), New Holland (1644) was named by a Dutch sailor named Abel Janszoon Tasman (1603-1659) and the Battle of Dunbar (1650), a century after a musical instrument called gravicembalo col piano e forte was exhibited in a commune called Florence in Italy (1708), an English memoirist named Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) wrote: "I call the Island Australia, or Terra Australis." (1814), Van Diemen's Land (1825-1856) and the state of Perth (1829), a century after Her Serene Highness Adelaide Amelia Louise Theresa Caroline (1792-1849) became Queen mother (1837), City of Adelaide (1840), an English teacher named Elizabeth Whitehead Malleson (1828-1916) created the Working Women's College (1864) in Queen Square (1725), the Edinburgh Seven (1869), an Irish-Australian daughter named Julia Margaret Guerin (1858-1923) from Victoria (1851), Australia attained her Bachelor of Arts (1883), the Electoral Act (1863) in Victoria, New Zealand, an English forewoman named Frances Mary Buss (1827-1894) became president of the Association of Headmistresses (1874), the conception of an Australian-Jewish physician named Constance Ellis (1872-1992) who graduated in 1903, a monolith was given the name Ayers Rock (1873), the New England Girl's School (1875), The Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women (1888-1905) was created by an Australian poet named Louisa Albury Lawson (1848-1920), ninety-eight years after an Australian sister from Tasmania (1825) named Emma Constance Stone (1856-1902) became registered at the Medical Board of Victoria (1890), ninety-seven years after the Women's Suffrage Petition (1891) in Victoria, Australia and ninety-three years after Constitution (Female Suffrage) Act (1895) in South Australia.Made eighty-nine years after the Paris Olympic Games (1900) and the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (1900), eighty-eight years after the ratification of the Constitution of Australia (1901), eighty years after an Australian member of the British Artist's Suffrage League (1907-1918) named Dora Meeson Coates (1869-1955) painted a banner which was carried during the English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, Indian and South African Women's Coronation Processions (1911) in London, England where some dressed like a Swedish Nightingale and an English opera singer named Grace Darling (1815-1842), seventy-eight years after Australian Capital Territory (1910), seventy-seven years after Northern Territory (1911), seventy-five years after the naming of an Australian city called Canberra at Capital Hill (1913), seventy-two years after a poet from Wellington (1840), New Zealand named Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry (1888-1923) befriended an English 19th century thinker in London, England (1916), sixty-eight years after an Australian citizen named Edith Dircksey Cowan (1881-1932) became a Justice of the Peace (1920), sixty-six years after the Queensland Maternity Act (1922), sixty-five years after the Queensland Jury Act (1923), fifty-nine years after an Australian poet of Cornish ancestry named Judith Arundell Wright (1915-2000) attended (1929) the New England Girls' School (1895), forty-nine years after a thirteen-year-old English human being and Queen of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms styled Queen of England, Australia and Canada and Her Majesty in Right of New Zealand said: "… In the name of the women of the British Empire … nor do we forget the gallant womanhood of France …" (1939), forty-six years after the Australian Women's Land Army (1942) and the Widows Pensions Act (1942), twenty-three years after an Australian state governor named Dame Roma Flinders Mitchell (1913-2000) became a judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia (1965), twenty-one years after an Australian poet named Lady Joan á Beckett Weigall Lindsay (1896-1984) published a novel (1967), an Australian educator named Mary Kathleen Burrow (1899-1987) became president of the Australian National Council of Women (1969), six years before the Mayors for Peace (1982), twenty years before the first justice of the peace courts were established in Scotland (2008), twenty-one years before a sixteen-year-old New Zealand-Australian sailor named Jessica Watson began her voyage (2009) and an English singer sang:"... I took the stars from my ..." (2009) contains a great and timely score by composer Bruce Smeaton.This retelling which is set in Oceania in the late 20th century and where people advocated more for the dignity of a Dingo than for a woman, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, rhythmic continuity, comment by Alice: "… my heart …" and the lingering acting performances by American actress Meryl Streep and New Zealand actor Sam Neill. A viable narrative feature.

Have just read some of the comments on the message boards and some of the reviews. Some opinions differ from mine, but that is usual. I am NOT a big fan of Meryl Streep... never having "bought into" the "Meryl is the Greatest American Actress since Bette Davis!!!" hype. But then, I never really bought into the "Bette Davis is the Greatest American Actress" hype either.All that said ... for me, this was just another Streep Accent film. The story was interesting because, not living in Australia, I was oblivious to the real life events and the furor it caused. I was not aware of the outcome of the trial and the appeals etc. The whole media mess reminded me of the parents being accused in the "who killed the baby-pageant-queen" case... also still not really solved.Streep is as usual.. Streep. Sam Neill is OK as the husband... not outstanding but OK. The many many bit parts and extras convey the hysteria that occurred in the country. The kids were mostly impossible to understand and the new little girl was obviously the child of some member of the cast or crew.Would I recommend this film ... nope .. not really. Too many better films to watch. Streep best actress that year ? Nopers again ! Plus she had a funny haircut and 1/2 eyebrows that were incredibly distracting. Give it a miss.

Based on a true story, Lindy Chamberlain (Meryl Streep) loses her baby to a dingo while camping near Ayers Rock in Australia. She and her husband Michael (Sam Neill) would go through an odyssey of lies and innuendos leading to their conviction in the murder of their child.The story moves along quite well with the two stellar leads. When I rewatched it recently, I saw the realism of the court case and the gossip that goes along with a celebrity case. I didn't really care that much about O J Simpson when it happened. But I had some time during the Casey Anthony case, and the media circus is so close to this movie. All those little real people inserts in the movie just hit the nail on the head.I also love the performances of Neill and Streep. I love when the husband started to break down. I love that after the conviction, Streep tells the guards that Neill is going to fall. I love all their interplay. The one thing I would change is to not show the dingo in the tent when it happened. I would plant a little doubt in the mind of the audience. It would cause a little bit of unease especially in the beginning. Other than that, this is perfectly made.

Although A CRY in the DARK may be a little slow-moving for some tastes, this docu-drama realistically shows the complexities of how a wrongful prosecution for infanticide can occur due to media distortion, misinterpretation of basic evidence, bias against a religious group and the accused's demeanor/personality, etc.While far from Hallmark, it is surprisingly tame considering the subject matter. Streep and Neill both give commendable performances, and there is also some wonderful scenery. Set in '80, filmed in '88, it's a nostalgic experience for those of us old enough to remember those times, not that I notice any really glaring differences between then and now. American audiences may find the Australian brogues a little hard to follow without subtitles.