No One Could Protect Her (1996) Joanna Kerns, Tony Denison, Peter MacNeill, Christina Cox, Dan Lauria - Larry Shaw Movie Review

No One Could Protect Her (1996)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Joanna Kerns in No One Could Protect Her (1996)

An Earlier Brave One

Life is good for Dan (Tony Denison) and Jessica Rayner (Joanna Kerns), business is going well and they are off on vacation but shortly after they return home Jessica is attacked and raped in their own home. With other rapes happening in the area Jessica becomes convinced that the man who raped her is behind these other rapes, trouble is the police are not willing to believe her. Traumatized by what happened Jessica believes the rapist is coming back for her and no matter how much they beef up security around the home it won't be enough to stop him.

Again I find myself watching a movie which I really wanted to like, now that may sound strange considering that "No One Could Protect Her" is a true story movie about a woman who is raped but it features several actors who I rate. And in fairness it is those actors Joanna Kerns, Peter MacNeill and Dan Lauria who deliver the performances which make it watchable. But unfortunately "No One Could Protect Her" struggles for style and despite their performances it struggles to fully bring to life this hard hitting true story.

Dan Lauria in No One Could Protect Her (1996)

To sum up "No One Could Protect Her" you could say that we have two storylines on the go which spring from the rape of Jessica Rayner. We have the way it affects Jessica and how she feels the rapist is going to return to get her, initially struggling to cope whilst trying to hold it all together. And then we have how it affects Dan who feels a primal need to catch the guy to the point he becomes obsessed with getting him which has a knock on effect with his relationship with Jessica. Both are interesting story threads especially with Jessica taking it upon herself to turn amateur detective to try and track down the rapist but there is something missing. The whole thing feels bogged down like a TV drama and lacks the atmosphere, writing and camera work to make the story more effective.

Despite that "No One Could Protect Her" still keeps you glued thanks to the performances which from Peter MacNeill and Dan Lauria are solid whilst Joanna Kerns does a better job of making Jessica real, fragile but in need of closure to regain control of her life. Unfortunately there are plenty of other performances which feel like they belong in a movie made for TV such as Tony Denison as Dan who over acts the emotion and anger of the character.

What this all boils down to is that "No One Could Protect Her" ends up a very ordinary crime-drama about a woman and her husband dealing with her rape. It is watchable but in truth it fails to be as effective as it could be.


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