Prison Stories: Women on the Inside

I just love this movie. I feel the emotions of the characters. It got alittle cheesy at times, but it's a good movie when you are feeling sad and low. It's not exactly a pick me up movie. This movie should be on Lifetime Television.

"Prison Stories: Women on the Inside" is a trio of short subjects each having to do with women in prison issues. None of the three stand-alone shorts seem particularly authentic and, of course, with only about 30 minutes each there's little story depth in any of them. Frankly, I have no clue why this film was made as it isn't particularly good entertainment, doesn't have any real purpose or message, and seems like just so much of the same old stuff we've all seen before. (C)

This is a film about (as you'll have guessed from the title), women serving time in prison. This is not an exploitation film but tries to deal with serious social issues in a non-exploitative way, with mixed results. I guess the problem is that the movie is split into three short films by different writers and directors, so you inevitably get rushed conclusions that seem underwhelming or involve clichés. You don't get a real sense of character, as narrative is emphasised heavily.

To summarise the three short films, the first is based around Rachel Ticotin who is serving a long sentence for drug trafficking. She has to deal with having a son on the outside being raised by her sister (played by a young Talisa Soto) and her dealer boyfriend leaving her.

The second film has Annabella Sciorra and Rae Dawn Chong playing new inmates in prison, one has a child on the outside one comes to jail pregnant. This included a standard women in prison movie strip search and shower scene when the new prisoners arrive. Though there isn't much nudity except for a few bare bums in the shower.

The third short film has Lolita Davidovich as a woman who murdered her husband and is about to be released on parole but has a teenage daughter in an abusive relationship. All said, the three films try to be compelling but they're didn't succeed. Most of the characters had no identity except for the social problems they had. And perhaps that's the reason for the failure.