This is a powerful, thought-provoking and moving film which gains in dramatic impact from a compelling screenplay, based on a real-life story, strong and sensitive direction and, above all, a blazing and unforgettable performance in her film debut by Amy Madigan who, said The Hollywood Reporter, „Doesn’t so much play her part as live it”.
Madigan is perfectly cast as a gritty, independent teenager who is jailed for seven years for a five dollar robbery, even though it was her first offence. In jail, she meets young prison guard Beau Bridges and a passionate secret romance springs up between them. Madigan becomes pregnant before she discovers that her lover is already married. When her condition is found out, the authorities put pressure on her to have an abortion. Madigan refuses to be intimidated and, learning that there is a Florida statute that will allow her to have her child and keep it with her until it is eighteen months old, Madigan begins a riveting court battle to retain custody of her baby…
In addition to the extraordinary central performance, Bridges is first rate and fine support comes from Mackenzie Phillips as a lesbian prisoner who befriends Madigan. This film, shown in Britain for the first time, makes for unmissable emotional and dramatic entertainment.
