Longford

This HBO Films drama tells the true story of the British Lord Frank Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, and his controversial, colorful, headline-making friendship with one of Britain's most notorious criminals, child murderess Myra Hindley. A devout Catholic, Longford often visited prisoners because of his passionate belief in forgiveness and society's need for prisoner rehabilitation. He meets with Hindley - a young woman serving a life sentence for child murders committed with her lover, Ian Brady - shortly after her imprisonment and the visits incite widespread public outrage. Their unlikely friendship ultimately undermined his career and, possibly, her 36-year attempt to win freedom.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Featurette

In the hands of Peter Morgan (writer of The Queen and Frost/Nixon), the intertwined lives of a child murderess and an English lord become what can only be described as a moral thriller--a suspenseful story of evil and forgiveness. The Earl of Longford (Jim Broadbent, Iris, Topsy-Turvy) has devoted himself to helping prisoners. When he receives a letter from Myra Hindley (Samantha Morton, In America, Minority Report), he doesn't hesitate, though his wife argues that some crimes are beyond redemption; Hindley and her lover Ian Brady kidnapped and brutally murdered several children in Manchester, and their names provoke the same gut response that Jeffrey Dahmer's might prompt in America. But after meeting Hindley, Longford becomes convinced that she was under Brady's sway and fights for her parole, despite resistance from the media, the public, and his own family. Longford is riveting. In the hands of this fantastic cast (including Lindsay Duncan, Rome, as Longford's wife, and Andy Serkis, King Kong, in a chilling turn as Brady), Morgan's skillful script bubbles and seethes with hidden motives and self-deceptions. Broadbent's complete transformation into a man whose compassion and good intentions threaten to destroy him, coupled with Morton's astonishing vulnerability, give Longford a remarkable multilayered complexity, contrasting the committed faith of the advocate with the equally committed obsession of the serial murderer. --Bret Fetzer