The Return of Alex Kelly

This is a TV-movie based on a true story in the eighties. Alex Kelly is an athlete from a welthy family, who is going to be famous because he rapes a girl after a party. Just a day before the trial he runs away to Europe, hoping that no one can find him. He meets this Swedish girl, goes to Sweden with her and everything seems to be o.k. for him, but then Interpol tracks him down, and he realises that the best thing he could do is to go home before he will be arrested.

For a TV-movie it's not that bad, but it could have been a lot better with a bigger budget. Nice acting although by Cassidy Rae and Matthew Settle.

Lackluster story following a young rape victim in Canada and the perpetrator on the lam around Europe for almost 10 years. Slow, dull and unconvincing. There's definitely something wrong when the victim appears as more sinister and menacing than the milquetoast rapist. It was shocking to find out afterwards that this bumbling farrago was made by the same man that gave us "First Blood".

I really enjoyed this movie. I remember Cassidy Rae from that show Models, Inc. during the short time it was on the air, and she did a really good job. The guy they used for Alex looked a lot like the real Alex Kelly. I thought I remember hearing something about a third rape case in this whole thing too, but it was dropped because of the statute of limitations. But this story was on America's Most Wanted and the news and lots of other places.

Also, in the movie, there were some errors. For instance, they had his lawyer meet him in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, but in the real story he was caught by police in a hotel room, so I don't know if the story was 100% accurate. The only wish I had was that this movie was available for purchase on either VHS or DVD. That's the only reason I would rate it down to a "9" instead of a "10".

The story of Alex Kelly is one of the most interesting, the most socially important of our time. Kelly, a high-school student in an upper-class family in suburban Connecticut was accused in 1987 of raping and threatening girl classmates. As the trial approached, with fear of prison hanging over him, Kelly fled the country. He stayed at large some ten years with the assistance of his parents before being apprehended and returned to the US (not coincidental to the time of his passport's expiration).

After one hung jury, he was convicted on retrial and sentenced to sixteen years in prison.

This tale is told from the perspective of rape victim #1, Carrie, the focus being her unresolved fears and torments throughout the period of Kelly's flight. Unfortunately, this angle only provides more fodder for a sanguine, soapy tale.

There is little information of Kelly's troubled upbringing, which by some accounts included drug addiction, and rehab, as well as burglary of neighborhood residences. It does splash a bit of light on the drug and alcohol addicted sibling of Alex Kelly, who took his own life via drug overdose while Kelly was in flight. But unfortunately, little time is spent on the Kelly parents-their dysfunction and denial. I will give the producers a thumbs up for the nice job type-casting the inherently pathetic Margot Kidder as Alex's mom.

Check A&E Investigative Reports for their version. It provides a more direct, uncluttered account.

Pass.