I Was Lorena Bobbitt

Mediocre TV film. The story is important and interesting but the way it is shown is not very convincing. Script tells details of the remarkable case reasonably and clearly, but it is not engaging or balanced enough. The idea of mixing documentary/real testimonies and fiction parts is often successful, but here it adds nothing. Acting is slightly over, but not properly bad. Music score is the paramount cliché of a thriller generic one, but certainly there are many soundtracks which are worse elsewhere. There is an exploitation atmosphere that weakens the film's outcome, but not enough to make it be bad. Action and outdoor scenes are not poor, but not impressive either. To resume, the movie is tepid and also flirts to a soap opera style, reaching a quite mediocre level. Though, not properly a bad one...

"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. )

It's sad that this kind of domestic violence against women still happens. I thought the movie was good but the actor portraying a Marine had long hair and Marines don't have hair that long. They usually have a skin fade or high and tight and have strict weight requirements as well as being extremely physically fit. He didn't look like a Marine. John was a disgrace to the Marines dressed in that uniform as well as his behavior.

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.