User reviews

This is a well done tv movie that teaches us to be careful who we're friends with! Bruce Curtis is a good kid who does well at school and has an ordinary life, Scott is supposedly a rich kid with a mansion by the sea. They become best friends and eventually graduate from school together. They dont expect to see each other again. But when Scott calls Bruce and tells him to come down for a visit, Bruce doesnt see what he expects a mansion by the ocean no but a poor house and an abusive stepfather who beats Scott and his mother! Murder is the only thing on Scotts mind and he wants Bruce involved! This film is a lot better then most might think its got a great script and fantastic actors catch it if you can!

True story from 1982 about Bruce Curtis, a Nova Scotia teen, whose visit to the residence of his boarding school friend in New Jersey turns out to be nightmare that led to his arrest for the murder of the friend's mother and sentence to 20 years in prison in a NJ facility for youth. Film is told from Bruce's point of view as he meets with his lawyer prior to the court hearing and his recount of the events of that fateful day in the summer of '82. Excellent script with outstanding performances by Kenneth Welsh (defence lawyer) and John Kapelos (prosecutor). The most exciting scenes from the movie are not the events as Bruce saw them, but the battle between the lawyers in the courtroom. In the end, the winning team was the work of the prosecuting lawyer, a man whose winning streak at 92% conviction rate of cases, adds another one with the Curtis case. It's not just about believing in the truth. It's about who's the smarter lawyer. Available officially in the UK on PAL VHS. Should be rerun on the CBC but haven't seen it lately.

I now have this movie posted to my Youtube page at www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRCUQuJdQP4 for those who want to watch this movie without having to search through a flea market or video store (if they still exist?) to find it.

Personally, I thought this was a very suspenseful movie and while, like almost every "based on a true story" movie, it is not entirely accurate on the 1982 trials of Bruce Curtis and Scott Franz. I was very lucky to have found this movie at the end of a VHS tape from 2000, as decent TV movies are very hard to come by these days. Great acting overall, especially from Kenneth Welsh, who had a main role on the TV show Twin Peaks.

8/10. Highly recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of the crime fiction genre