Maybe only LIFETIME can clear this up, but I saw many comments elsewhere over the weekend about who, if any, of the real people behind the character portrayals in the movie had to have gave permission or else had a financial interest. I'm guessing that no one had to give permission or had a financial interest, as these peoples' names appear in public documents?
I watched it twice out of curiousity. Every thing in the story lines up with the high points in the timeline of the case, except of course the little "hey gotcha!" at the end. A combination of a "ha! ha!" and a portrayal of what Lori's "incompetency" might look like. It was meant to show incompetency, and the shock of that realization. Means, nor Prior, are named, or any other attorney or prosecutor.
The story was rushed. Hard to put all that has happened over the last couple of years into a movie that is under two hours. Just like your favorite book, the movie is never as good.
I think the writers went out of their way not to show anything that is not alleged in court documents: Such as Alex's phone alone pinging in the yard. No one is shown helping Alex, because so far, that has not been alleged.
Chad's text message to Tammy is instead shown, and the cops talking about it. Just like we do here, you draw the connection.
A dog statue is shown intermittently. It is not the cute puppy in Tammy's pet cemetery, but rather a more realistic dog statue. Little details like that might be off-putting to some of us who are very familiar with the details - but I will give them creative license there, as what was going on was way less than "cute". And there was no time to develop Tammy as a character.
A lot of younger people might not remember Linda Purl from her younger days, and Patrick Duffy. They are very good actors, but portrayed Kay and Larry as a little more frail than how they really are.
To be fair, you need to view the movie a couple of times to see the details. Chad is portrayed as the mastermind, just like RW said in the interview with SS, and MG alleged in her interview with NE. If you think RW and MG are wrong about who was in charge, you'll still realize where the idea comes from. They just needed to dumb Chad down a little IMO.
I don't think a jury will be swayed by this movie any more than it would be by all the other media coverage. The trial is dragging out to be so long in coming, that I'm sure there will be other dramatic portrayals. Its taking on JonBenet proportions.