(There are Spoilers) Based on a true story "Sins of Silence" shows just what a rape victim goes through in a court of law where she, it sometimes could be a he as well, has to prove her being a victim of this horrible and degrading crime. Sophie Dimatteo, Holly Marie Combs, was anything but a nun in her lifestyle of getting high both on pot and booze as well as having trysts with young men that she was involved with. But when Shophie was raped and beaten by a young man she met in a bar she deserved all the the rights and protection that the law could provide her even if she were a nun.
Being contacted by rape counselor and former nun Molly McKinley, Lindsey Wagner, Sophie as you would have expected is anything but honest with her on the circumstances of her being raped afraid it would cost her widowed fathers job as well as her reputation as a sweet and non-partying young girl. Sohphie's dad Nick, Victor Argo, works for the company that her alleged rapist Tommy Bickley III, Jason Caleux, father owns.
It takes a lot of effort and persuasion on the part of both Molly and District Attorney Joey Finn, Brian Kerwin, to get Sophie to open up and tell her story as honest and truthful, no matter how embarrassing and depressing, as she can. It's the defense represented by the Bickley's high powered lawyer Lee Keating, Sean McCann, that has all the cards money and most off all his ability to subpoena Molly's private records of her interviews and opinions of Sophie's conversations that can easily sway the jury against her. These private records being subpoenaed by the defense can in the end get Keating's client Tommy Bickley III off Scot-free no matter how strong and convincing the evidence is in her favor.
We find out from Molly herself that when she was a nun she was involved with a girl much like Sophie who came to her for help and ended up committing suicide because she, in her own mind, didn't do enough and wasn't going to make that mistake again with Sophie. Not releasing her records of her conversations with Sophie where she admitted her wild and out of control lifestyle Molly ends up behind bars for contempt of court. It's only when Sophie herself urges Molly to release her files that she's released from jail and it's those files****SPOILERS**** that in the end convicts Tommy Bickley III of raping her despite the many inconsistencies in them. The jury obviously disregarded the fact that Sophie wasn't truthful in what kind of innocent person she was in her day to day lifestyle but was on target to what happened to her when she was violently attacked and raped by Tommy.
The movie honestly shows how hard it is to convince a jury of being raped when the victims past is brought out and used to justified the crime, Tommy never denied having sex with Sophie, that was committed against her. The fact that the defense could have Molly's personal and confidential records of the persons, like Sophie Dimatteo, she consoled made public made those persons in a court of law almost as, if not more, guilty as their attackers themselves! Molly McKinley put and end to all this by burning all her records, some 3,000 of them, in a symbolic bonfire at the end of the film keeping what's in them only between her and the rape victims that she tired and in the case of Sophie Dimatteo help to get justice.
Being contacted by rape counselor and former nun Molly McKinley, Lindsey Wagner, Sophie as you would have expected is anything but honest with her on the circumstances of her being raped afraid it would cost her widowed fathers job as well as her reputation as a sweet and non-partying young girl. Sohphie's dad Nick, Victor Argo, works for the company that her alleged rapist Tommy Bickley III, Jason Caleux, father owns.
It takes a lot of effort and persuasion on the part of both Molly and District Attorney Joey Finn, Brian Kerwin, to get Sophie to open up and tell her story as honest and truthful, no matter how embarrassing and depressing, as she can. It's the defense represented by the Bickley's high powered lawyer Lee Keating, Sean McCann, that has all the cards money and most off all his ability to subpoena Molly's private records of her interviews and opinions of Sophie's conversations that can easily sway the jury against her. These private records being subpoenaed by the defense can in the end get Keating's client Tommy Bickley III off Scot-free no matter how strong and convincing the evidence is in her favor.
We find out from Molly herself that when she was a nun she was involved with a girl much like Sophie who came to her for help and ended up committing suicide because she, in her own mind, didn't do enough and wasn't going to make that mistake again with Sophie. Not releasing her records of her conversations with Sophie where she admitted her wild and out of control lifestyle Molly ends up behind bars for contempt of court. It's only when Sophie herself urges Molly to release her files that she's released from jail and it's those files****SPOILERS**** that in the end convicts Tommy Bickley III of raping her despite the many inconsistencies in them. The jury obviously disregarded the fact that Sophie wasn't truthful in what kind of innocent person she was in her day to day lifestyle but was on target to what happened to her when she was violently attacked and raped by Tommy.
The movie honestly shows how hard it is to convince a jury of being raped when the victims past is brought out and used to justified the crime, Tommy never denied having sex with Sophie, that was committed against her. The fact that the defense could have Molly's personal and confidential records of the persons, like Sophie Dimatteo, she consoled made public made those persons in a court of law almost as, if not more, guilty as their attackers themselves! Molly McKinley put and end to all this by burning all her records, some 3,000 of them, in a symbolic bonfire at the end of the film keeping what's in them only between her and the rape victims that she tired and in the case of Sophie Dimatteo help to get justice.
