In the mid-1980s in Miami, Florida, several parents suspected that the daycare service in their area had sexually abused their children. Subsequent prosecution of the suspects and the trial are summarily presented in the TV movie Unspeakable Acts, directed by Linda Otto, which was aired on ABC in early 1990.
Based on Jan Hollingsworth’s 1986 book of the same name, Unspeakable Acts highlights the work of the real-life couple Laurie Braga (Jill Clayburgh) and Joseph Braga (Brad Davis), both child psychologists, who interviewed the children affected at the daycare center. The movie also shows how the parents struggle to cope with the emotional fallout of such a situation as well as some key procedural issues that steer the prosecution in such cases involving children.
With an important subject matter and based on real-life events, Unspeakable Acts does a good job in drawing attention to the case, particularly in being the only movie available on what has been named the Country Walk case – one of the worst child sex abuse scandals in American history. The movie’s name is expressive of the emotion the filmmakers and viewers share when speaking of acts of such nature.
Unspeakable Acts is well-acted and directed but suffers from the limitation of its treatment of the prosecution of the suspects with the most notable shortcoming being exclusion of the interrogation and/or testimony of the main suspect in the case, namely Frank Fuster (played by Gregory Sierra). Whether it was a filmmaker’s choice or necessity due to budgetary issues, the story feels incomplete without the main suspect’s side of the events that led to his prosecution. It also takes away from the conflict in the plot to show the suspect as a passive recipient of the trial against him. On the whole, the movie is a good starting point to learn more about the case from multiple sources.
