Gone Mom

Relatively well done though the last 15 minutes lack spark. Sad story and fairly different from Dateline type coverage.

ABOUT MY REVIEWS:

I do not include a synopsis of the film/show -- you can get that anywhere and that does not constitute a meaningful review -- but rather my thoughts and feelings on the film that hopefully will be informative to you in deciding whether to invest 90-180 minutes of your life on it.

My scale: 1-5 decreasing degrees of "terrible", with 5 being "mediocre" 6- OK. Generally held my interest OR had reasonable cast and/or cinematography, might watch it again 7 - Good. My default rating for a movie I liked enough to watch again, but didn't rise to the upper echelons 8- Very good. Would watch again and recommend to others 9- Outstanding. Would watch over and over; top 10% of my ratings 10 - A classic. (Less than 2% receive this rating). For Lifetime Movies for Chicks (LMFC), drop the above scale by 3 notches. A 6 is excellent and 7 almost unattainable.

I read the book (The Dollhouse Murder) and the movie just does not hold up. The children are almost ignored and they play a much bigger part of the real story. The script does not do justice to the terror and abuse caused by a narcissistic husband. I realize that a movie cannot include everything from the book but this movie just glided over the real story.

Gone Mom is completely intriguing from the first minute. I kept wondering what was next throughout. I enjoy Lifetime movies to varying degrees but THIS ONE was a standout, Annabeth Gish was perfectly cast in the leading role. She was believable and strong throughout. The actor who played the husband was also very good. It made me anxious and nervous wondering what was next. I would recommend it to anyone.

When I was in 2nd grade, Jennifer Dulos went missing. The Dulos family lived in my town, and I knew the family. All 5 of the Dulos children went to my school, one of them was in my class. We were very good friends. I remember everyone being distraught, we had seen Mrs. Dulos probably the day before she went missing. There were missing posters up for her, and in a town park, there is now a memorial. This whole thing is so horrible and if you really find this movie to be an enjoyment to watch, think about a family with 5 kids, a dad who committed suicide, and a mom who was killed. How do you feel watching this movie and knowing that the only way they were able to make this movie was for a family to be completely destroyed, traumatized, but there are people out there that are enjoying it.

If you knew these people, you wouldn't be watching this movie. Why are we becoming so entertained by others' downfall? Just imagine being in 2nd, 5th, or 6th grade. Your mom is dead, your dad killed himself. Your lives are ripped apart. Now there is a movie being made about your family's tragedy all for people's entertainment. Sure, true crime is an industry, but once it happens to you, and they make films about how your family was wrecked, would you still support it?

Not much here, just very slow story telling. Lots of questionable lines uttered by the characters and the acting resembles a high school drama. I made it 25 minutes before fast forwarding to skip ahead to an ending that doesn't make sense at all.

Plays like a rich wife who loses her husband to cheating and isn't shown to have any qualities other than being a trophy wife.