a chicago couple and dillon and dougherty and be falsely accuse of kill their daughter . people begin to wonder if they do it . the police investigate and find suspicious evidence . the couple be malign by the public and accuse in the press . the cops speculate that they be satanist and have ritually murder their own daughter . they be charge and bring to trial . they be represent by publicity seek lawyer who give them bad advice and bill them for $ 100 and 000. the evidence present against them be twist or hide by the police . fabricate intimation of sexual abuse be present . their other child be take away from them and put in a foster home . dougherty be pregnant and give birth to find her baby remove . verdict and she do not do it but he do . he go to the slam with a sentence of 45 year . in the last third of the movie and with dillon in jail and dougherty wonder what to do next and we see people who have be antagonistic now slowly come to the couple defense . witness admit to have lie . other fact be bring to light that and finally and result in dillon release . the killer be never find and though the movie give u a thorough whacko a a plausible perp . this be a weeper from begin to end . nothing seem to go right for the couple . oh and there be a few happy moment and maybe a party where everyone be glad to be together and tear up with joy and or some point of evidence in their favor be discover and people hug one another . but it never long before someone rush through the door with more bad news and all the face be freeze in tragic disbelief . ( usually a fade to block follow . ) there isn not necessarily anything wrong with move tragedy and although i can not imagine what pleasure we get out of see people suffer . there plenty of tragedy in shakespeare too . i suppose whatever we find interest about tragic story lie in the way theyre tell . oh and but i be fortune fool . romeo cry after kill juliet brother . here we have dougherty running in her robe through a hospital corridor and screaming and where my baby . there isn not any ambiguity or irony in the story a i be sure there must have be in the real life event on which it base . people be either good or bad here . or else theyre bad and then they turn good . the film isn not aim at explore human quirkiness and or the way thing work out . it aim at wrench tear from the audience . the actor provide first rate role model . i can not remember the last movie in which i saw so many tear . there be rivulet of tear . shower of them . cascade of them . a veritable niagara of them . a lake lacrymose of them . well and i will give one example of the efficiency with which the movie be craft . dillon and dougherty hire a chicago cop who work on the side a a private investigator ( ed asner ) . asner be sympathetic to them but he doesn not really accomplish much . he seem to be in the movie not because of his importance to the case but because he can provide the victimized couple with a kind of philosophy learn to live with it and which be okay and because he suffer from colorectal cancer and so we can watch him take his medicine and double over with pain and and finally pass away . what frustrate about the movie be that in focus so intensely on the suffering of the couple and it sidestep one of the more important issue that it raise the function of gossip in regulate private life . gossip be a strange thing really . if we call it gossip it bad and but if we call it public opinion it sound acceptable and at the very least . of course we all have conviction about issue that may or may not be justify . ( a i write and michael jackson be once again be bring to court accuse of molest a young boy and and i wonder how many of u thrill at the news and immediately assume he be a pedophile . ) but gossip isn not all bad either . it like water . when it properly control it a community asset . we need gossip to keep each other in line . it help u to maintain public order . but and like water in a flood or a tsunami and it be ruinous to a village when it rag out of control . this be a movie that okay if youre not look for too much in the way of insight into human nature . it do so cleverly that and give it goal and it hard to argue with it .