Protecting the Sins of the Past
When Sophie (Holly Marie Combs) is found in a distressed state in the back of a car she is taken to hospital where she is introduced to Molly McKinley (Lindsay Wagner) a nun turned rape counsellor who convinces her to allow them to do the examination to prove she was raped. But whilst Sophie agrees to take the rapist to court it is complicated as not only is the rapist the son of her father's boss but Sophie does not have a whiter than white past. With some guidance Sophie opens up to Molly and District Attorney Joey Finn (Brian Kerwin) about her less than virtuous life but when the defence lawyer wants the notes of their conversations Molly fearing that they may paint her client in a bad picture refuses to hand them over and in doing so finds herself in contempt of court and put in jail as she believes those files are confidential.
Like many TV movies I find myself watching "Sins of Silence" is one of those which takes a true story and then fictionalizes it. There is nothing wrong with that especially when the movie in question deals with the subject of rape which is the case of "Sins of Silence". But what it also does is lead the movie down the path of being able to use cliches and having watched numerous TV movies which broach the subject of rape there are elements of cliche to this one.
But what "Sins of Silence" has is an interesting angle as whilst it has that sadly cliche side where we have a young girl with a promiscuous past who fears it will go against her in court we also have Molly, the former nun who feeling guilt over a young girl who once needed her help is willing to go to prison to help Sophie. It adds a new twist on a drama where you know several things are going to happen from Sophie fearing her father's disapproval to the defence lawyer painting her out to be a promiscuous young woman who wasn't raped. It also adds an interesting element of wonder as you begin to think about what will happen to Molly, her career and so on by her decision to protect Sophie rather than whether Sophie will get justice in the end.
The thing about "Sins of Silence" is that it benefits from who are in it as Lindsay Wagner has a certain style which makes her easy to like and get behind. In the same way Holly Marie Combs also has something about her as whilst playing a girl with a past it is incredibly easy to get behind her. It is the right casting right down to Brian Kerwin as the DA and Victor Argo to Sophie's dad which makes this movie easy to watch.
What this all boils down to is that "Sins of Silence" is a movie which delivers a rape justice storyline but does so with a different angle and an interesting one at that. But it works because of who is in it and what they bring to their characters.
