Fugitive at 17

While bearing the stamp of a Lifetime movie, Fugitive at 17 is quite a few cuts above standard Lifetime fare. The story is not terribly original, but the writing, plotting and acting is a good deal more than you might expect. There are virtually none of the standard Lifetime tropes: sentimentality, amateurish performances and warm, upbeat, sappy smiles and chuckles exchanged among characters. The two leads are real actors. Marie Avgeropolous is a convincing and compelling performer with a focused intensity that is not overdone. Christina Cox's performance style is more reserved, but very professional and carefully crafted. We also get production values that exceed Lifetime's bland low-budget output. The pacing and well done suspense scenes in this movie should keep you away from the fast forward button.

Holly Hamilton (Marie Avgeropoulos) is an independent loner teen computer hacker who has a history with the cops. She has only one friend and her name is Blake. When they go to a bar to celebrate, Blake is lured away by a serial rapist. Holly goes in search of Blake and comes upon the rapist. He kills Blake and frames Holly for the crime.

This is a made-for-TV movie, and it looks like it. Luckily the story had a little bit of ambition which made it somewhat watchable. Marie Avgeropoulos is good looking and fairly physical. But she doesn't really have the facial expressions to do in-depth acting. The story has some tension, but the low budget just doesn't allow for big action. It's watchable, but forgettable.

With Ottawa standing in for Philadelphia which you only see in establishing shots, Fugitive At 17 is a decent enough drama about a girl on the run. Marie Avgeropoulos is invading male nerd space as she is both beautiful and a computer hacker, not the image one usually has of hackers. But it's her computer skills that are invaluable to her right now as she seeks to clear herself of a murder charge, the murder of her best friend.

She goes with Cindel Chartrand usually to keep an eye on her as she's beautiful and a bit of a wild child. But they split at a club with Avgeropoulos going off with Daniel Rindress-Kaye and Chartrand being picked up by Casper Van Dien. Van Dien slips her a roofie and Chartrand dies of it and he attacks Avgeropoulos when she goes looking for her friend. The cops think she killed her friend.

The plot is kind of weak here and a good lawyer would have gotten her off as there was never even a motive hinted at why she would kill her friend. But later on while being transported to jail with some real feminine hard cases she gets caught up in an escape.

It's a good news bad news situation. Bad because she's a fugitive, good because she's free to investigate herself. She has a detective played by Christina Cox whom she gradually convinces of her innocence.

I liked Avgeropoulos's character. She's got a lot of Nancy Drew in her for the 21st century. Nancy could never have kept up and in touch with law enforcement and her father if she didn't have what this girl has available to her.

Casper Van Dien who is usually a square jawed hero reverses type against himself to play a predator. And play it well.

Fugitive At 17, not a bad film for a made for Lifetime TV job.

i rented this movie from red box the other day, when it first started out i thought it was going to be open of those crappy low budget films. After about 15 minutes in there was a great plot twist, after we find out holly was responsible for her best friend Blake's murder we have to just hope that holly can figure out what to do next. In the movie they portrayed her as a hacker i wish they would have put more of this is the movie. As for the suspense i was sitting wondering what would happen next for most of the movie. If this movie comes on TV, or its in your local red box you should for sure check it out, get it for movie night or something. Great movie!

The only reason I rate this at 4 stars is because without the 2 leads this would have been a 1 star execution of a story that had the potential to live up to the 6 star rating...

Marie Avgeropoulos and Cristina Cox carry this movie, it could have been a lot better but when there is exactly 2 people in it that is actually capable of portraying a character in a way that makes you see the character rather than just some person pretending('acting'...) to be whomever they are portraying, the end result is obviously less than good...

The story is decent and the writing isn't horrible but in the end you watch it because of the 2 leads and just kinda suffer through the rest of them...