...And Then She Was Gone

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.

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.

Although it's an excellent thriller mounting up to some awesome complications and thrilling finale, it is not without flaws. The charitable business kidnaps fatherless children to bring them out of the slum and possible prostitution, to send them on to better families like this one in England, for a better future, but while she is detained waiting for transport the little girl is entrusted with a prostitute for relieving her of her mother, a real injecting drug addict, which doesn't quite fit into the charity scheme. In the end the director makes a speech for his defence, which although reasonable is impossible to accept, which he realises himself and takes the consequences. Robert Urich makes a great performance as the regular business man who gets mixed up in this, pulling him deeper into trouble for every confrontation, but the greatness of his performance consists entirely of understatements. After the drama is over he goes back to business, leaving us wondering about what he will do next about his two relationships, both more complicated than any of his business. Megan Gallagher also makes a great performance, and every inch of her desperate actions is perfectly convincing and credible: any mother would act in the same way. It's a great film on a small scale, but the drama does in fact reach Hitchcockian proportions, considering especially how well it is built up, from a mere trifle of a baby doll getting our poor business man constantly knocked about, to the revelation of very advanced business in the field of human trafficking.

I watched In a Stranger's Hand before Shakma on Christmas eve and enjoyed it. I remember when I first watched this on Lifetime and Shakma on either Showtime, HBO, or Cinamax after I graduated from highschool. This was the first movie that I became familiar with Brett Cullen and then was Prehysteria, Complex of Fear, and Apollo 13. Plus, I like watching Megan Gallagher and others too. The music in this movie is suspenseful and so are certain scenes. Robert Urich plays a partner in a software expert business who becomes unexpectantly involved in a search for a missing girl. The deeper involved he becomes in the search, the more truth involving the girls disappearance is explained. Overall, this is a excellent movie for those who love suspense.

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.