Elizabeth Smart, Kidnappée à 14 ans

This film seems like a Charles Manson story clone. Very slow to watch if it was on the Cinema I would demand my money back. These film are either great or pathetically poor. I get no buzz from this at all.

It's great to have the context from Elizabeth Smart herself in this movie. It's also really good to appreciate a bit more what she went through and how miraculous it was that she not only survived, but is mentally fine after all that abuse. Obviously, since Elizabeth herself is narrating the film, you can be sure that everything in the movie happened and nothing was needlessly dramatized.

However, from a filmmaker's standpoint, it could have been a bit better. They could have skipped back and forth between her point of view and that of her parents' to show their efforts in trying to find her and the developments that were going on outside her campsite. They didn't even explain how the police knew to find her (her sister remembered the voice of the suspect and they tracked him down).

I also don't like how through narration Elizabeth seems to try and justify all her actions throughout the piece. Does anyone doubt that she wanted to stop being abused? The film almost seems like a reply video to a bunch of people that question why she didn't yell for help. I dunno. To me, it's obvious and was forced a bit much, but maybe that's the audience Elizabeth was wanting to address in particular.

Overall, a great documentary of the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. Cinematically, it could have been improved, but it did the job for the purpose it was filmed for.

I wanted to offer this review because, as a self-defense teacher and as a film afficianado, I feel I am compelled to give my take on it. The importance of this movie is clear - to let people know how crazy the world can be, how fear overrides a lot of your decision-making, and to tell the unique story of Elizabeth Smart. This movie was done well in terms of acting with the two leads looking almost identically to the actual people. Undoubtedly you'll read in these reviews that viewers had problems with one thing - the clips of the actual Elizabeth Smart speaking about the experience during particular harrowing scenes. The problem is that it comes across as cheesy, stops the story cold, and seems like she is trying to convince the viewer that what she did was the ONLY thing that she could have done. I didn't personally think harshly on this, however I didn't care how it interrupted the story and flow of the film. If I were the one making this, I would have added her remarks (and even interviews with her family and past footage) at the end. While the movie, which is good for a Lifetime movie, follows Elizabeth at every moment, it would have been nice to see to what extend the rest of the world was invested in finding her. Movies like this about survival and perseverance should be made and certainly seen.

I went in with reasonably low expectations with this being a made for TV movie but ended up liking it more than I expected. It's probably a 7/10 movie but because I wasn't bored once, the acting was so good and it exceeded my expectations I gave it 8.

Elizabeth Smart is a truly remarkable woman, and for her to have the courage to detail her story in this manner is nothing short of incredible. No detail is left out, on purpose I'd assume. Her message shows that she is not guilty of what happened to her and those who share similar abuse stories should not be ashamed. For her to agree to do such a detailed and accurate rendition of her story is amazing, and I can not recommend you watch this film enough (and her book, "My Story"), if anything for the lessons of resilience and courage.