53 Days: The Abduction of Mary Stauffer

The acting is truly awful, as for the one playing Ming, please go back to drama school, a lump of cardboard would have acted better.

This true story deserved a lot better actors to tell it.

Lifetime took a terrifying, real story and turned it into a boring, glaringly fake movie.

The acting is absolutely attrocious. The little girl lacks any acting skills, I wonder who cast her in this movie, and why. As for the professional actors, especially the only name recognizable, Alyson Hannigan, they all should be ashamed of portraying of real life persons with such incompetence.

The soundtrack is cloying. The dialogue is inane. Eg., Question: "How long have you been watching me?". Answer: "Nobody will find you".

The scenario is illogical: the only time the abducted mother screams for help is several weeks after being locked in a closet when the kidnapper plays LOUD music!

Everything in this movie makes you aware how FAKE and idiotic it is.

Everyone involved in making this movie did an abysmal job.

Since this movie is based on a true story, it is difficult to be hyper critical. I will say Alyson Hannigan's portrayal of Mary Stauffer was layered and well acted. Nice to see her step out of her comfort zone!

I'll keep this short and sweet. The story here is very close to the actual happenings of the Mary Stauffer kidnapping, but because this was a film designed for a TV audience, including children, it spares many of the horrific accounts that actually took place.

Hannigan delivers above all in this movie to portray Mary, a role that is difficult to capture and required a lot of pressure to take on.

It's also an excellent testament to the power of hope and prayer. The morals that the world learned from the actual crime are easily pushed in a proper manner.

In 1980, school teacher Mary Stauffer (Alyson Hannigan) and her eight-year old daughter Beth are kidnapped by her former student Ming Sen Shiue. They are held captive for 53 days. It's a straight forward Lifetime woman-in-trouble movie. Alyson is good. Most of the actors are fine. Everything is fine and nothing's great.