What is it like when you try to get the truth out there? When are reports 100% accurate? Perhaps you know more than the authorities. There have been a lot of cases where somebody has been wrongfully accused and sent away to jail for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes, those investigator types you see in online videos and tv series figure out the truth. Or maybe someone in touch with the wrongly accused knows MORE than anyone and can provide a more suitable explanation. Which is what we learn in this film.
Based on a true story and a book, the movie Marlene starts out telling the story of a little girl named Lynn Truscott who got strangled to death and everyone believed it to be her brother Steve (Aidan Fink) when it was actually some creepy old man. Or possibly someone else. Years later, his wife Marlene (Kristin Booth), the main character gets an idea from a news report that they should do a DNA check to prove Steve’s innocence many years ago. But Steve is too nervous to do so, and it takes some serious convincing. Marlene also decides to call other people to get involved including CBC journalist Julian Sher (Ryan Northcott) to tell the story, and lawyer James Lochyer (Dave Trimble) to prove once and for all, it wasn’t Steven’s fault. Marlene orders lots of old paperwork and Steven’s past records too, and the difficult journey to innocence begins. As Marlene looks back on the olden days of her youth, from when it all began we learn about both of them. Steve is spending time in the slammer and young Marlene (Julia Sarah Stone) is living her life as usual until she hears about Steve from a magazine article her mother reads. Somehow it attracted Marlene to him and she takes her mother on a trip to scope out all the evidence in the areas. It’s a tough fight with the aid of a reporter named Isabelle (Maxim Roy) but eventually young Steve is freed and develops a relationship with Marlene. The love story from there is pretty basic yet magical at the same time. Eventually after years of being married together, Marlene and Steven feel they need to let their kids know the sad truth about Steve and it seems their daughter Leslie (Olivia Duke) already figured it out one day at school. Other strange bits of evidence appear on the trail of Steve’s story and Marlene continues to investigate some of these other stories. Soon the story consumes her much to the concern of her own family. Other bits of evidence that was especially crucial has long been destroyed as well, and Steve’s innocence is hard to prove. Marlene still pushes forward though as she continues to dig deeper and deeper.
The whole movie is a really emotional journey focusing on a lot of unknown details that nobody really looked into too much. The characters show a range of all kinds of emotion from relief to stress and the story is one of the most elaborate I’ve ever watched so far. All the details about the trial were extremely informative and it shows a powerful message that through a lot of effort and hard work, facts can be set straight and evidence can be proven. Of course, it also teaches just how flawed the justice system can be and not everything works out sometimes, thus going back to how difficult things can be when proving a point, especially one that nobody believes. Even more interesting are the twists in the whole thing. Just when you think something’s on the verge of going wrong, it clears up remarkably well. But I think the best part about this film is how realistic it is. Many writers (including myself) know that the best stories come from real life happenings. Even my most fictional adventure series was a near retelling of my own adventures.
