Movie Review Sneak Peek: An American Crime Based on the True Story of Sylvia Likens

After watching Jack Kethum's, The Girl Next Door, I was obsessed with discovering more information on the actual murder case of 13-year-old Sylvia Likens. I just felt such an emotional attachment to the story, and I wanted to find out more about her, and what in the movie was false and what was true.

Sylvia Likens was a 13 year old little girl who was abused, starved, beaten, and raped until she finally passed away. The evil doer here was, Gertrude Baniszewski, her guardian who was taking care of her, and her younger sister till their parents got back from their road trip with their traveling circus.

Gertrude would allow her children, and other children in the neighborhood abuse Sylvia while she was tied up in their basement.

The main reason this story is so horrific is the fact that other children in the neighborhood knew what was going on, and instead of helping this poor girl, they instead added to her abuse. There was something so horrific and animal like about this, that it was just... disgusting, that someone would rather bring pain to someone, instead of help them escape the pain by telling someone what was going on.

After becoming so sickened with the fact that someone could do some of the things that had been done to Sylvia, I had to research it more.

During my research, I discovered that not only was Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door the only movie based on the Sylvia Likens murder, but that a movie called An American Crime was also done. This movie also happened to feature one of my favorite stars, Ellen Page!

Now, Ellen Page did such a phenomenal job acting in Hard Candy, that I thought she would have the part of Sylvia Likens nailed to the tee. So much so, that I'd likely end up in tears by the end of the movie.

The movie An American Crime starts off a little different than Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. In An American Crime it is clear that not only are we going to get a look into the abuse that went on in the Baniszewski home, but we were also going to get chops of the court case that happened after the murder.

An America Crime takes a much more closer look at the reason behind Sylvia's death. The reason the abuse began was because Baniszewski, older daughter got pregnant, and Sylvia accidentally slips one day and tells someone. Not too long after the rumors begin, and Baniszewski's daughter is angry.

Gertrude Baniszewski then begins the first steps to the major abuse that Sylvia endures. Before being locked up in the basement though, Sylvia and her younger sister would be beaten whenever their parents failed to send Gertrude Baniszewski the $20 a week check on time.

At any rate though, An American Crime does an excellent job at getting the viewer to understand what is going on, however the ending sort of trailed off into a more ghostly fictitious ending, which sort of sucked because up until then, the movie seemed genuine and real.

Besides the choppy ending, An American Crime was a sad movie, but it did not capture the horrible abuses that Sylvia endured quite as much as Jack Kethum's version had. Ketchum's version was a more upfront, in your face kind of shocker. The ending though does include information on what happened to those who participated in Sylvia's death.

An American Crime was horrific, but not as shocking, nor did it manage to work up tears for me the way Ketchum's version had.

Although I adore Ellen Page, I just didn't find her character as Sylvia Likens believable, which is odd because usually Ellen Page does a phenomenal job at playing such dramatic, dark parts.

Overall, if you are researching the story of Sylvia Likens, this movie is a must see. However if you are looking for that emotional attachment to the story, An American Crime just fails to touch it on that level.