While the theme is something we have seen before on LMN, the story is based on truth , and Nancy McKeon is believable as the victimized mother whose child is stolen by a woman posing as a nanny.
Michael Madsen portrays a military man, tired of his marriage to Veronica Hamel, and tells her he wants out. As an older woman, she panics, her perfect life disrupted, so she decides that a baby will save the marriage. She has problems becoming pregnant, so concocts a scheme: she pretends to be pregnant, wears maternity clothes and pillows to make her husband believe she is indeed pregnant. As he is a man rigid to his obligations, this one fact keeps him in the marriage. He crassly tells her, "My C.O. will not approve if I divorce you know, a pregnant woman".
Nine months pass and, as her husband is blissfully uninterested, Hamel gets away with the initial scheme. Then her husband asks...are't you about due, wherein she again panics, and tries to adopt. When that doesn't work, she advertises for employment as a nanny. As she is well- spoken and educated, she is hired by Nancy McKeon's mother, who believes her to be trustworthy. In the instant she allows Hamel to hold the child, the child is abducted.
McKeon portrays a low-income single mother, and there is a cameo with David Duchovny as the sometime father of the child. The media initially blamed the parents, as in most cases they are immediate suspects. McKeon rises to the occasion, and uses the media to publicize her child's abduction.
The fact that this is a true story serves as a cautionary tale to any new parents, and Veronica Hamel excels here as a desperate and borderline personality who will do anything to save her faltering marriage. 8/10.
