I Was Lorena Bobbitt

Like another reviewer, I went into this movie with high expectations. I will say it was very entertaining but it was also very one sided. Lorena Gallo, as she goes by these days, works very hard to paint herself in the perfect light. She never did anything wrong, she only tried to please her husband, and was very naive/innocent throughout the entirety of the movie.

What the movie doesn't mention is that she stole $7000 from the woman that gave her the job as a nanny and at the nail salon. Or that she was arrested for assault, (albeit years after the incident) for striking her own mother. I'm not stating this to judge Miss Gallo, because we've all done things we aren't proud of; I'm merely pointing out that she's not as innocent as the movie portrays her. At the end of the day, she was still the victim of abuse and that should never be tolerated. I just wish they would have done a better job of showing both sides of the story. FYI This is coming from a woman who's on her side.

Overall, this is pretty well made for Lifetime. There is a lot of care in depicting the early 90s and having the actual Lorena Bobbitt narrate is a nice touch.

However! Any time the lead actress, Dani Montalvo, needs to show "emotional vulnerability" it's just simpering, stammering, and drawing out the delivery of lines. Maybe it was the director's choice, but it was the wrong one. Consequently, the movie starts out pretty good but becomes increasingly annoying and you're ready for it to be over.

It's Lorena Bobbitt from her side of the story including narration from Lorena Bobbitt herself. It starts with the incident and goes back from the beginning of their courtship to the court cases.

Once it's revealed that Lorena is the one with approval in this movie, this becomes rather predictable and by-the-numbers. It's a story of an abused woman. I hope that Lorena got some satisfaction from telling her side. Otherwise, it's not much of a drama and it's really impossible to sit thru all of her abuses and court case. I don't remember much of it. I wasn't following it that closely back in the day. The biggest twist is that she takes him back. Life is a mess and this one is definitely a mess. Of all the things that she could do to convince the audience, she should tell the story from his side before and after Lorena. Listing all of his crazy troubles after Lorena is enough to convince anybody that John is a violent drunk even if it doesn't convince them that she's a saint.

This story was one of the first I heard about domestic violence and right now considering how cooped up all of us are, it couldn't have aired at a better time! Couples trapped in their homes can lead to abuse although not this extreme. Dani Montalvo and Luke Humphrey gave strong performances on very graphic and violent subject matter. Lorena's showed herself to be a very courageous woman and still is against all odds. Loved how they had her narrate her own story and what she's doing now to help other battered women!!!

"I Was Lorena Bobbitt" reminds of the Amy Fisher movie that was told from Joey Buttafuoco's point of view. It is so lopsided at times that its credibility is weakened. Luke Humphrey does a nice job but John Bobbitt is such an orge in this movie that his part should have been played by Shrek. Oh by the way, the movie never mentions that after Lorena cut "it" off, she drove away and threw it out the car window into a park. All that said, "I was Lorena Bobbitt" is an okay Lifetime movie. It's just that my expectations were too high. (By the way, my wife doesn't agree with me. She really enjoyed the movie. )