A Cry in the Dark **** (1988, Meryl Streep, Sam Neill, Nick Tate, Charles Tingwell, Lewis Fitzgerald, Bruce Myles, Dale Reeves) – Classic Movie Review 8899

Director Fred Schepisi’s 1988 A Cry in the Dark stars Meryl Streep, who gets to try an Aussie accent this time as Seventh Day Adventist Lindy Chamberlain who goes on a camping trip with husband Michael (Sam Neill) to Ayers Rock in the Australian Outback, sees a dingo emerging from the family tent and finds her baby daughter Azaria gone.

When the couple goes on TV, the Australian public takes against them because they do not seem to be grieving properly. Next the press ridicules their story, the police find some apparent inconsistencies in it, and then they are charged with murder and put on trial.

Painstaking director Schepisi delivers a straightforward, perhaps over-plain telling of the rather familiar dingo baby case. The powerful acting of the stars makes up for Robert Caswell and Fred Schepisi’s screenplay’s inability fully to illuminate the characters and get the best out the story. It is based on the book Evil Angels by John Bryson.

And a black-haired Streep uses her reliance on technique to advantage in one of her strongest performances, though a less showy Neill gives an even classier display of acting. Streep won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival (1989) and was Oscar nominated as Best Actress. There were five Australian Film Institute awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Also in the cast are Nick Tate, Charles Tingwell, Lewis Fitzgerald, Bruce Myles, Dale Reeves, Neil Fitzpatrick, Maurie Fields, Peter Hosking, Matthew Barker, Dennis Miller, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Sandy Gore, Dorothy Alison, Bruce Kilpatrick, Brian James, and Brendan Higgins.

A Cry in the Dark [Evil Angels] is directed by Fred Schepisi, runs 121 minutes, is made by Cannon Entertainment, Golan-Globus Productions, Cinema Verity, Evil Angels Films and Warner Bros, is released by Roadshow Film Distributors (1988) (Australia), Warner Bros (1988) (US) and Cannon (UK), is written by Robert Caswell and Fred Schepisi, based on the book Evil Angels by John Bryson, is shot by Ian Baker, is produced by Verity Lambert, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, is directed by Bruce Smeaton and is designed by Wendy Dickson and George Liddle.

It proved an unexpected disappointment at the box office. Costing $15,000,000, it grossed $6,908,797 and $6,908,797 elsewhere.

Schepisi, Streep and Neill previously teamed up for Plenty (1985).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8899

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