i find it hard to like anyone in this film . the central character and lindy and michael chamberlain and whose daughter disappear during a night out in the australian outback and be not bad people and but then surely not all and or even most and of the score of people we see throughout this movie would be bad if we know them well . but though we be as sure a the film want u to be of the guilt or innocence of the chamberlain from the start of their life tragic disarray and the film take on a more or less sociological perspective pertaining to gossip and news medium and crowd and mob and assumption . it not a movie about the degenerate society of australia in particular while it merely an account of a true story that happen there . society en masse be much less evolve than the individual feel ensure that we be . when a warden insists upon kill all of an aborigine dog because of the unverified action of a single wild dog and when a randomly ruin life spin even far out of control owe to the majority of magazine and newspaper and tv program distort the tragic truth to a level of drama that provoke it consumer into a frenzy and there be no sign of empathy or even any kind of look outside of one own unaware perception and influenced left and right by the vigorous hearsay and vibe of those who surround one life . the reason i appreciate the film be because it turn the focus inside out and from the victim to the mass . the evidence against lindy chamberlain aside and suspicion be jet fuel mostly by a virtue of hers . to the public eye and she do not seem sufficiently distraught by the death of her baby daughter . why be she able to keep her cool and even a sort of aloofness let alone hold her head up and for tv and the press . how much of the downward spiral could have be prevent have she behave more to the public liking in the medium . meryl streep and one of and if not the and great actress work today and may not give a performance that particularly stand out and and frankly neither do any other actor and or department of film making . but she and and the screenwriter and do understand lindy . what be infuriate be that it not that difficult . apparently and she be not naturally prone to show emotion in public in any case . whether or not she be approachable a a lovable character in the immediate sense and we be naturally prone to sympathize with her situation . whether or not her performance be a immediately gratify a sophie choice and the devil wear prada and angel in america or other such work and it be a triumph . it be difficult enrapture an audience when you purposely deny them insight into yourself . she frustrate u because we do not know what she think or feel . it take me awhile to feel endeared toward her and but this be the movie way of suggest the reaction of the public attention . she be marry to a pastor and and they both practice a religion that be in a small minority and thus misinterpret by most . initially and they react to their loss a if to be reconcile themselves to god will and kick start a rumor mill generate the notion that their daughter death be some sort of ritual kill on their part . whatever happen to the little girl and her parent be part of a margin with whom most of the medium intake do not immediately identify and so the first inclination be to go after them like a pack of hungry . well . meryl streep and sam neill be constantly on screen and but the australian public play the real lead here . like punctuation for each plot advance and director fred schepisi cut away from restaurant to tennis court to dinner party to saloon to office and where the public try lindy and get carry away into their own passionate projection . this golan globus docudrama be not particularly memorable . the setting atmosphere doesn not give a pleasurable enough compensation for the fact that no performance or facet of production stand out . but it be very successful a an indictment of the collective conscious of the public .