source: Without Evidence

I put this film in my Amazon Prime queue because I was living in Oregon at the time of Michael Francke's murder. It starts with a clip from "Unsolved Mysteries," and the rest of the movie has about the same production values, including the cheesy preview scenes. It was fun seeing scenes of Oregon and recognizing a couple of Portland stage actors, but otherwise, I lost interest, despite having seen the story play out in nightly news reports for months.

*** possible spoilers *** I come across this film today and I like it very much. The film is very solid, very logical, very real, presented no evidence but every clue pointing to the suspected mastermind behind the murder -- the "suit", a state officer in the Correction System, came from some other state, got trouble in some sex deal which was in the newspapers. Quite naturally they could not put the name in the film but that's enough information to inspire me to Google up a little more. I simply started with "Michael Francke murder" and the first match popped up answered it all and revealed, to my surprise, the case is having fresh new breakthroughs. The Willamette Week news story dated Nov. 17, 2004 says, "Now the old case is heating up thanks to a document that never surfaced in the trial of Francke's murderer or his subsequent appeal. It was discovered not by a zealous defense lawyer but by the dead man's brother, who found it last month in an old box of evidence..." Anybody interested can just search it and read more details. It's very interesting to read and tallies with different clues in this film, or even not-the-clues in this film. This is an amazing story because it's real. It's no Hollywood. It's no hamburger. It's no Tom Cruise or Sylvester Stallone fighting a two-hour quick shot. It takes fifteen and probably even more years of a man's life to fight against not only a single bad apple but a bad apple tree. Not for himself, but for his brother. I like this film and I expect the sequel, both for the case and this film.

If anyone is interested in more info about this case please go to FreeFrankGable.com.The movie was meant to bring attention to an innocent man being sent to prison for a crime he did not commit.If you visit this website you will get up to date info on this case which will make this movie make more since to you.Find out what has happened in this case and what is still happening.The family's of all involved are still looking for the truth and are getting closer as we speak...get up to date info on the corruption in the state of Oregon...read about all the witnesses recanting...check out the message board....read how Jodie is doing these days and hear what Kevin and his family are doing to find out who really killed his brother!

This movie said it was based on a true story so I thought it might be interesting. From the start the movie was disappointing.Little information is built upon the characters leaving you not knowing enough about any of them for them to be very likable. Just when the movie seems to be going in the right direction it falls short. Situations develop but with little detail. There seemed to be too much information trying to be crammed into the movie.It was like one scene he asked for the autopsy report and ,cut, next scene he gets the report in the mail.Toward the end of the movie I just kept wondering when is the movie going to be over. Then the ending is there and you don't even know it because the whole movie just drags on. It ends so abruptly that you still have questions, but really you could care less if they are answered.A total waste of time and money.

This is not a bad movie and deserves a better rating. If some people were expecting a lot of violence and action scenes, they should realize that this is a true crime story and the movie makers could not do so and still remain true to the events as they occurred. There's some fine performances by Angelina Jolie and Scott Plank, although some of the rest of the cast seem to be amateurs. It's an interesting story, I recommend it to anyone who is interested in true crime.

Written in part by a journalist who has dedicated much of his career to this true story, it unsurprisingly doesn't deviate from the perspective that the conspiracy the movie presents is true. It may well be the case that the version of events on offer here is the truth, unfortunately, that doesn't guarantee a well-told story. The quality is a little rough around the edges. For a movie so focused on a real-life story, it's really lacking in telling that story. Everything just tends to drift by from scene to scene with very little fleshed out. It gives the impression that the makers were overly cautious, and as such used as little creative license as possible. This movie presents its story at the expense of entertaining you. The main cast do put in a good shift and work well with what they're given. Don't be fooled by the cover as Angelina Jolie isn't in the movie for long, but she does steal the show when she appears. The ending might well be as far as the story goes at the time of filming, but it won't leave any satisfaction.

I know how true this story is because my sister lives with a man who this woman had married after the murder took place and when the FBI went looking for her she up and left him. He has since filed for a divorce and meet my sister who lives in Fresno California. Im leaving their names out for specific reasons. So please bear with me. Before her husband had been murdered he suspected his wife might be trying to have him killed and changed his life insurance policy and will leaving his brother everything. After the murder when she tried to collect the money she was extremely upset to find out she wasn't getting a dime and was to leave his property immediately. Angeline Jolie did an excellent job of portraying the woman. This is a must see film!!!!!!!

Sat and watched this today and have lost an hour and a half of life that we will never get back. The write up was intriguing and Angelina Jolie usually is not associated with rubbish so we watched it. As a true story you would have expected an ending - not in this film, it just stops! The story is really slow and disjointed and never really gets going with anything of any consequence. All expectations of uncovering a conspiracy and identifying the murderer are never founded because the film literally just stops. It was almost as if they got as bored as the audience and gave up. Some of the acting is okay but that is all that can be said really. The sound quality was appalling too. An absolute load of rubbish.

Without Evidence had a really good, complicated idea of a conspiracy thriller, and I was expecting it to be tense and exciting. But I will say I was disappointed. It isn't the worst movie ever, but as a conspiracy thriller it does fail big time. One redeeming quality was the acting. Scott Plank is fairly good as the brother of the murder victim, and although she is (disappointingly) only in three scenes, Angelina Jolie also impresses. However, they are let down by plodding direction, unconvincing supporting actors and a lacklustre script. Another problem was that the characters and the plot were badly underdeveloped, they tried to get somewhere but because of the script, it never got across. The most disappointing aspect was the ending, the final solution is usually the most riveting thing in a film, but the film completely lacked that.Yes, someone gets convicted of the murder, but we never do find out if they're guilty, or if there's even a conspiracy. Honestly in that case, it needs a sequel, if it ends that abruptly. In conclusion, a disappointing and confusing film (I can't remember the amount of times I was going WHAT? at the screen), that had so much promise, but just failed to deliver. 4/10 Bethany Cox.