Girl in the Basement

I knew something was off the moment our main antagonist delivered his first line of dialogue. He was such an atrociously bad actor throughout the entire film that it genuinely felt like a school project at times. It wasn't until the first cut to black during a tense moment that I realized this is a Lifetime made for TV type movie. With that taken into consideration, it held my attention well enough. What trumps even the poor acting and cinematography was the method of story telling. They attempt the classic move where they show a scene from near he end of the movie and then jump back 20 years earlier, slowly building back up to that moment to continue from it. The problem is that this particular scene shows us that any attempt at escape we see throughout the first hour will be unsuccessful, killing any tension and momentum. This was based off the harrowing real story of Elisabeth Fritzl, and more justice could have been done with it in the film realm.

This did not come off like the usual Lifetime movie - my comments:

1. Nice to see Judd Nelson working, though the part of the dad is light years away from the Breakfast Club. 2. Though there was not a lot of it, the violence was shocking. 3. The dad character was completely unsympathetic. 4. The ending was satisfying, yet left a lot of questions.

Well done and definitely toned down for TV. I personally think people need to start making movies that actually depict the true horror of the reality we live in. Her true events were 1,000 times more horrific. It doesn't do the victims justice by making the father out to be better than he was. He is pure evil. Men like her father should be tortured every second for the rest of their life.

Why would they hire actress Elisabeth Röhm, to direct this film, when she's never been behind a camera before? This was such a troubling and horrific true story event, it needed professionals to tell it. The screenplay was on point, but Röhm's failure to direct her cast and scenes properly, really failed this film. Performances were adequate to decent, but that was strictly from the merits of the actors following a screenplay. Stefanie Scott's performance got better as the movie progressed, but I'm sure that was due to her getting comfortable with her character. Even Judd Nelson's performance was stale and amateurish, that with a better director, he would've shined. Had a seasoned director been involved, this could've been much more gut-wrenching and epic film. Nevertheless, it's a story that needed to be told, and I'm glad it was; It was a bold move for Lifetime to produce this. I just wish it was told in a better way. It's a generous 6/10 from me.

The delivering through a low budget standardized package of generic tv drama prevents the implications of such events to be fully developed for its own flaws of mediocre acting, underdeveloped plot and neglected atmosphere.

Still, there's something remaining that may make the movie watchable but the disappointment that it should've been much better exists.