The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story

I like how this film put more emphasis on Kara's daring escape and the aftermath of the attack. The actual kidnapping and subsequent restraints that the kidnapper used were scary enough, but we also got to see how Kara's strong memory helped the police get eyes on the suspect.

The key to this movie is that Kara is a survivor. She does recognize the trauma of her experience, but she doesn't let it dictate her entire life outlook. And it makes perfect sense that she wanted to seek justice and watch her captor get locked behind bars.

It's not an exquisite film. The boyfriend and best friend characters are left in the shadows. Also the scenes of the police investigative work aren't very well established. I still liked this film enough to recommend it.

15-year-old Kara Robinson (Katie Douglas) gets taken from her friend's front lawn by gun-wielding creepy Richard Evonitz (Kristian Bruun) in broad daylight. He forces her into a plastic container. Her mother Debra Robinson (Cara Buono) struggles to get the police to take her seriously.

The first half is mostly Kara with her creepy captor. She has the mantra of survival which seems to be the theme of the movie. The second half could have been an intense manhunt for the creep, but the movie is more interested in Kara. I can appreciate that in a Lifetime true crime story. As for Katie Douglas, the twentysomething does look like a small teenager when compared to Kristian Bruun. That helps sell the realism.

... and this film is not going to be part of it. On Ginny and Georgia, Douglas manages to make her character stand out by underplaying, and by relying on her natural charisma. On that show, of course, she is aided by A-list writers, cast members, directors. This movie, on its best day, dressed in its best Sunday suit, is a B-movie, with shortcuts taken everywhere. Many obvious opportunities for deep emotional beats are missed, simply because the actors and the script are not up to snuff. The PR package makes a huge fuss about Kara's courage, which, in real life, was staggering. None of that comes through here. Emotions are like a roller coaster. To create the "up," you must first create the "down." By deliberately minimizing the horror of the captivity, writer Haley Harris denied viewers access to the downs. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

So this is a real story about a girl that kidnapped that really touched me. I liked some technicalities such as the sound design, cause it was often like a heartbeat which really made my heartbeat follow the rhythm. Plus I liked the performance of little Kara, she was really good, and the fact that the movie did not show the violent scenes. Finally I liked the simple cinematography.

What I didn't like: well the screenplay was not as great, there were some holes. Also some people were saying the same thing over and over again, it was not a certain word or phrase but whole dialogs. I understand that in real life in this situation you would probably make the same conversations but this is a movie, and the audience is going to get bored sometimes.

Otherwise it was really good one of the best of its kind.

The whole movie/story is great! Very well acted by the actress, Katie Douglas. She did a fantastic job.

The message in this story is don't lose it! As she was repeating the words, noting details as best as she could.

Initially, the response from Police3 is typical, they won't do much if anything until 48 hours, runaway, staying with friends, blah blah.

I think young girls/women should watch it, it's almost like a training movie of how to deal with an abduction. That is of course if the abductor behaves like this character. He may just abduct, rape, murder and that's that! Sadly.

I recommend this movie to all ages....