Lea Thompson stars in 'A Life Interrupted' Monday night at 9 on Lifetime.

Of all of the horrors of rape, the loss of freedom lingers longest. Women who had long been independent and fearless inevitably change after a rape.

Everything changes.

If they know the assailant, the women no longer trust their judgment. If he was a stranger, every man is suspect. Every corner brings potential danger, and a rape survivor's sense of freedom is shattered.

Debbie Smith's rape sounds improbable because she was in what should have been the safest of places: her home. Her husband was there and legally armed. But that's the thing about rape - it can happen at any time, to anyone. Debbie's husband, a police officer, had just returned home after working the overnight shift. The kids were at school. She and her husband made love, and while he slept, she went downstairs.

While she tidied the kitchen, a man broke in, cupped his hand over her mouth, threatening to kill her and her family if she screamed. He dragged her into the woods behind her house and raped her.

Lifetime's A Life Interrupted on Monday, April 23, chronicles how rape turned a housewife into an activist who helped change the way rapes are dealt with in this country.

When Lea Thompson, portraying Smith, sees the rape kits from women attacked only in Virginia filling shelf after shelf in a warehouse, she changes. The kits contain evidence collected after an attack. Though the technology exists to identify a perpetrator from his DNA, there isn't enough money for the investigations.

As Thompson looks at what appears to be acres of brown paper bags containing physical evidence, and usually the underwear from the day each of those women's lives was interrupted, she knows she must act.

Thompson plays this beautifully and quietly, but you can see her change.

"I did put myself through the wringer for this one," Thompson says. "It's a great part, because in some ways it is a giant story and in some ways it is a small story. It is a small story of this shy woman overcoming herself in a way to help other people, which, I don't know, is pure love in a way.

"She is a beautiful person, and that was the small part of the story. The bigger story was how this kind of violence can really ruin lives. What you strive for as an actor is to help people become more compassionate. By seeing someone else's story through film, you get compassion. From the first time I read it, I felt a lot of compassion for her."

It's impossibleto watch this and not feel for Smith and her family. The movie does a great job of capturing how Smith went from being an involved mom to one who no longer wanted to go out, living in total fear that the rapist would return.

Smith, pathologically shy, did not even like greeting other worshippers at her church, yet she steeled herself to go before a congressional committee. She is the woman next door, and one with plenty of common sense. She persuaded lawmakers to appropriate money for DNA testing.

It's not enough, Smith says from her home on 16 wooded acres in Virginia.

And so she consistently returns to Congress asking the Appropriations Committee to fund US$154 million per year for five years. That money helps train nurses, police officers and emergency technicians to better respond to rape victims.

The money also helps authorities to make their way through the backlog of rape kits, which the Department of Justice conservatively estimates at 500,000, Smith says.

Though the film proves that one woman can make a difference, it errs when it hits the audience over the head with symbolism. A compilation character of a young woman who was raped has the feeling of a created character.

Heavy-handed symbolism

Smith says her husband really did bring home a young rape victim, adding that the young woman in the film represents many. The movie also has a scene where the rapist is standing in Smith's kitchen long after he's been imprisoned. Such heavy-handed symbolism is unnecessary in such a powerful story.

Some might assume a woman who quit high school to marry the love of her life and relished her quiet existence is an unlikely hero. Yet people who have that mantle placed upon them always say they were just going about their lives when something happened and they reacted.

"There are millions of heroes in this world that just by overcoming the terrible things they go through are great heroes," Thompson says. "And by using adversity to help others and by seeing past themselves, they are heroes. Ifelt honored to portray her."

Smith and her husband, Rob, established a non-profit foundation to help rape victims. For more on their foundation, go to www.h-e-a-r-t.info.

"What I hope comes out of the movie is people will understand, of course, there is the victim herself, but I hope they see the ripple effect," Smith says. "I hope they understand the devastation that comes with the crime. What my mother and sisters went through. This only shows the tip of the iceberg. So many people are involved, and this hurts so many people. Hopefully it is going to touch the heart of some of the legislators. This crime is worthy of money being thrown at it.

"If we can stop the rape, then we are going to have a healthier society in general. My children, even in their marriages today, still deal with issues in their lives - and they are the secondary victims. I am hoping that people will see the ripple effect and will report the crime and understand they don't have anything to be ashamed of, and more and more people will understand what rape is."

- Jacqueline Cutler, Zap2it