Against Their Will

The ex-convicted Alice Needham (Judith Light) is the mother of two teenagers sons and a young daughter, who presently has a straight life. However, she is unfairly accused of stealing some clothes in a department store, misguided by her lawyer and unfairly sent to prison again. There, she fights for her rights, and when she is on probation, she hires the honest and idealistic lawyer Jack Devlin (Stacy Keach) to defend the other women against the corruption in the prison. This movie is a shallow, but enjoyable drama. The story is full of good intentions, has a great message in the end (fight for your rights no matter where you are), but it is also very naive and hard to believe. The character of Alice is well constructed and shows a great personality, fighting for her rights, but all the other women have committed some sort of crime to be in jail. It does not give the right to the guards explore them, but the problem is that I found the story manipulative. Basically, the prisoners are presented like poor exploited saints, and the guards as corrupts and sex addicted. I liked it as a fictional drama, because in real life, I believe the events would be much different. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): 'Prisão de Mulheres' ('Prison of Women')