En manos de un extraño

There is a clandestine circle in kidnapping children. One girl disappears and her mother puts up "Missing" posters. A businessman on his way home from work notices the girl in the poster looks exactly like a child that he saw in a train. His search goes through many places to help the mother find her daughter. A very stylish and interesting movie.

Classic. If you're into bad early 90's 'made for TV' movies. This one involves a child that vanishes. I had trouble paying attention (I have ADD) and combining attention defecit disorder with a bad early 90's TV movie makes for a rough situation.

It's awful. No two if ands it's or buts about it. But, if you laugh at horrible lines and a plot that any mildy intelligent person can pick apart within the first ten minutes, then this is for you. I have trouble giving a vote on this, because although being awful as it so obviously was, I was sickly drawn into watching it unfold. Like a book I've read 20 times, I knew every 'twist' and 'turn' involved. There weren't many to begin with, but a slow plot can sometimes be refreshing.

I did not think this was a good movie. The overly loud musical score is poured over it like cheap gravy and I suspect that the dramatization of this true event was anything but subtle – probably they thought they had to spice it up.

And yet, there is something deeply irritating about the whole affair that made it worth the watching time invested. The main character is oddly believable as a living doormat. I have to agree with other commentators that Robert Urich delivers a stunning performance. The man plays a big, intelligent fellow, a former football pro and a successful businessman, but people don't hesitate a second to walk right over him. The man seems to be outright plagued by an unhealthy kindness and, above all, an over developed sense of responsibility.

When a business partner sets an important meeting at a date when he is supposed to go on a long promised trip with his girlfriend he cancels the trip. When he wants to pass a found doll to a traffic cop who does not accept it, he takes it with him. When he tells his secretary she should send the doll to its owner by mail, the secretary refuses flat out and virtually orders him (her boss) to deliver it personally – and he does it. The result: he gets nearly lynched as a supposed kidnapper and then beaten up time and time again. This becomes all the more grotesque as the guy's wardrobe seems to consist only of two ill fitting business suits which become more and more tattered and dirty as the story moves along. He never even removes his tie! It is very odd and slightly surreal.

The man is coerced into helping to find a girl who disappeared by the girl's single mother, a waitress. She transfers part of her guilt and responsibility over to that stranger she had never met before and who has nothing to do at all with the kidnapping. And he accepts the transfer. This is beautifully shown in the scene where he stays in the woman's apartment because she can't sleep. She leans against him and falls asleep at last. In the morning they both awake, the woman refreshed the man (unshaven, in creased business suit and limp tie) with a numb side against which the woman had leaned. But the masochistic climax is definitely the moment when the woman storms into a restaurant where the afore mentioned important business meeting takes place and tells the guy to go with him. He tells her he will, when the meeting is over. But for her it cannot be in a few minutes, it has to be RIGHT NOW. The urgency is clearly irrational but he dithers and dithers and then obeys. Oh, it was hard to bear.

The bottom line: This movie shows that different genders have different agendas and priorities and how not to deal with that issue. The rather downbeat ending is very telling in that aspect.

How someone so successful in computer software could be so stupid is beyond me. While the first half of the film, maybe even 3/4 of it, worked quite well and was often amusing despite the subject matter, it went downhill like a ski champion towards the end. You know those moments when you are shouting at the screen things like 'leave their name in the message', tell security, they will put a halt to...' and so forth.

I liked the cast, and the acting, the storyline was good but seriously, when a screenwriter uses stupidity to build tension, the wrong kind of tension, more like infuriation...

... I just couldn't bear it. I hope my life never depends on such a clown.

I saw this recently on Lifetime cable. I looked at it to start simply because Robert Urich was in it, and had just passed away. I figured I wouldn't stay with it for more than a few minutes but ended up seeing the whole thing. I was surprised at how much tension and suspense this Tv movie had packed into it, even with the distraction of commercial interuptions! It also features an ending that is somewhat open to interpretation which is a nice change from the usual TV movie storybook ending. There were some logic holes ie like why didn't a character call the police ( but that would have watered down the climax) however this is a good film.