Mature-looking young teenager Jessica Amlee (as Hannah Anderson) is out on an Idaho camping trip with her significantly older "uncle" Scott Patterson (as James "Jim" DiMaggio). We know something is wrong because Ms. Amlee is skittish and Mr. Patterson seems to be interested in his niece as a sexual companion. Looking very creepy, he waves a gun around. As if that wasn't enough, they are surrounded by the FBI. After some shooting, Amlee is rescued and reunited with kind, soft-spoken father Brian McNamara (as Brett Anderson). We learn Amlee was abducted by Patterson. He also beat and burned to death her mother and brother. Amlee and her dad return to their Lakeside, California home. But things do not go well, there...
Reporters swarm around Amlee and question her level of participation in her abduction. They suggest the "Lakeside Lolita" was a willing partner for Patterson and may have even participated in the murder of her mother and brother. To set the record straight, Amlee considers going on "The Today Show" to tell her story. Some fear this will only fan the tabloid flames, but Amlee is determined to tell her story...
This "Lifetime" TV movie claims to have been, "based on a true story." This review is not meant to judge the young woman characterized...
As a story, "Kidnapped" is not very intriguing. We know "media" stupidly follow these stories for their entertainment value, but they take the "side" of the abducted young woman; witness the lurid-tingled reporting of Natalee Holloway's disappearance by Greta Van Susteren and Nancy Grace. Here, we are led to believe "media" see Amlee as guilty of participation, but we are not shown why. The TV flashback "point of view" story goes into scenes without Amlee or her father. There is no suspense in scenes when Amlee tries to escape or kill her abductor, since know the ending at the beginning; consequently, director Peter Sullivan's best scenes fail. This shifts interest to the psychological, but the characters are simply not at all interesting.
** Kidnapped: The Hannah Anderson Story (2015-05-23) Peter Sullivan ~ Jessica Amlee, Scott Patterson, Brian McNamara, Jay Pickett
Reporters swarm around Amlee and question her level of participation in her abduction. They suggest the "Lakeside Lolita" was a willing partner for Patterson and may have even participated in the murder of her mother and brother. To set the record straight, Amlee considers going on "The Today Show" to tell her story. Some fear this will only fan the tabloid flames, but Amlee is determined to tell her story...
This "Lifetime" TV movie claims to have been, "based on a true story." This review is not meant to judge the young woman characterized...
As a story, "Kidnapped" is not very intriguing. We know "media" stupidly follow these stories for their entertainment value, but they take the "side" of the abducted young woman; witness the lurid-tingled reporting of Natalee Holloway's disappearance by Greta Van Susteren and Nancy Grace. Here, we are led to believe "media" see Amlee as guilty of participation, but we are not shown why. The TV flashback "point of view" story goes into scenes without Amlee or her father. There is no suspense in scenes when Amlee tries to escape or kill her abductor, since know the ending at the beginning; consequently, director Peter Sullivan's best scenes fail. This shifts interest to the psychological, but the characters are simply not at all interesting.
** Kidnapped: The Hannah Anderson Story (2015-05-23) Peter Sullivan ~ Jessica Amlee, Scott Patterson, Brian McNamara, Jay Pickett