Un étrange enlèvement

Having been raised by a mother that was exactly the same as Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper ... I can tell you that this movie gave me a new set of nightmares to deal with. Which speaks volumes in regards to the acting and directing. I would imagine that Elizabeth Smart's life must also be full of nightmares ... and this will continue throughout the remainder of her life.

As seems to be the norm in these abduction cases, the police continue to make life even worse for the victims of these crimes against families. In this case, even though the abduction is witnessed by Elizabeth's younger sister ... the police still go after the parents. On the other side of the coin, it often is a parent that is the guilty party ... Jon-Bonet Ramsey ... but, with a witness, in this case ... a lot of time was wasted on trying to pin the crime on the parents. The person they tried to finally pin it on looked nothing like the real monster, as said by the only witness. Unfortunately, the police pretty much ignored that witness.

Believe this ... there are plenty of people, out there, that are exactly like the abductor of Elizabeth Smart. BELIEVE IT!

I was happy to see the tasteful way they told Elizabeth's story. The actors were all great(that guy they got to play John Walsh looked just like him!)and mostly, the facts were straight. I hope that this movie will enlighten people and that she will be able to get the help she needs to recover. We love you, Elizabeth!

Emmanuel and his wife Wanda Barzee are religious zealot drifters. Emmanuel cleans up and encounters Lois Smart while street preaching. She's out with her kids and she recommends him to her husband Ed. He starts working for the Salt Lake City family as a handyman and fixates on daughter Elizabeth Smart. He soon disappears and 8 months later, he returns to kidnap 14-year-old Elizabeth. It's the start of a terrifying ordeal for the entire Smart family.

This is a solid ripped-from-the-headlines movie. The adults are good solid actors. Dylan Baker and Lindsay Frost are especially good playing the most intense parts. Their complicated relationship with the police has nice tension. Tom Everett is good and the girl who plays Elizabeth is good enough. The production is Canadian TV like many of this type of movies. This is not going to win any awards. It lays out the case well. It's a compelling story told well enough by a good cast.

It's been several years since I watched this movie, and I only stumbled upon the IMDB entry after recently becoming a fan of Amber Marshall from watching "Heartland." I live in Utah and very closely followed this story including going on one of the searches. I am also a very active Mormon aka member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Obviously since I haven't seen the movie since it aired I remember little of it, but one thing I do remember from the movie is that the actress who played Elizabeth's mom Lois is wearing a sleeveless dress. Had the producers done even the slightest research on the Mormon church and the Mormon faith they would have known that a practicing adult Mormon woman because of the special clothing which we wear under our regular clothes always wears at least a cap sleeve. I also remember hearing a report that someone had to ask that prop coffee cups be moved from a breakfast table on the set. Many are aware that coffee is against what Mormons call the "Word of Wisdom" their health code. Those two items are such basic parts of Mormon culture that it shows an extreme lack of research or attention to detail on the part of the producers. I don't recall now the accuracy of other parts of the story - and others have commented on those things, but I was very disappointed in the lack of attention to basic things about Mormon culture.

Linda Ann Sheldon - July 6, 2020 Monday

I didn't realize until researching Amber a few years ago that that had been her. She did very very well. The film had horrible costuming however. The actress playing Elizabeth's mom was wearing sleeveless tops which an active Mormon mom would never do. And the set people were so stupid that someone else had to step in I heard and take the coffee cups off of the table.

More stuff - August 10, 2021 Tuesday

I was finally able to see this last night when I found the dvd at my local library.

The things I said before about not getting it about LDS culture still hold true. They didn't get it about the clothing. The church that the family came out of was obviously not an LDS church. The blessing on the food with them holding hands was not the way LDS members give blessings on the food - we just fold our arms and bow our heads as we do in a regular prayer. They did surprisingly get right how family prayer in more observant families is done - kneeling with arms folded, heads bowed, and eyes closed. The wording that the father used in the prayer was surprisingly accurate. (It made me wonder if Amber who never talks about being religious in her regular life was affected by it at all - oh wait that was the actress who played her little sister who looked just like her.)

The posters, search, etc. Were surprisingly accurate. The story was surprisingly accurate. The left out the more traumatic aspects of Elizabeth's story, but understandable so.

One disconcerting odd thing was the actor playing Emmanuel/ Brian David Mitchell looked surprisingly just like the real Ed Smart when shown clean shaven and esp. When shown in the drawing. It seems like it would have made more sense for him to have played Ed Smart and esp. Since it was weird that he looked like Ed Smart.

Amber did amazing. Most actors have mannerisms that they keep when going role to role. I kept watching her to see if I saw in any of her mannerisms any of "Amy Fleming" or any of herself as I have seen her in many videos on line, and other than maybe maybe maybe something that I saw at one point her doing with her mouth I didn't see anything. I more or less forgot that it was Amber - and didn't at all confuse her with "Amy" - and just saw her as Elizabeth. She did play Elizabeth though as a bit more outspoken though and not as soft speaking as the regular Elizabeth.

All in all I thought that it was good job. The actress playing Lois was believable and appearance just enough like the real Lois. The actor playing Ed Smart seemed like an odd choice to me - esp. Bec. Of the above reasons. The kids were phenomenally cast - the older brother - very realistically, and the girl playing the younger sister was phenomenal. Brian David Mitchell as I said, looked too much like the real Ed Smart. The actress playing Wanda Barzee generated just the right amount of sympathy combined with creepiness.

I wish that they would have shot in Salt Lake instead of Halifax. The places looked similar enough, but it was still weird to not see the real Salt Lake.

For an obviously quickly put together effort to get on air while the story was still hot I was actually very surprised at how good that it was. If you want an al be it somewhat simplistic telling of the story, check it out. It appears that it maybe wasn't sanctioned by the family. They did a good enough job on it that it surprises me a bit.

I live in Utah, and was around for most of the events depicted in the film. I was even recruited for search parties. Having seen everything first hand and then seeing it on the small screen, I realized that this version took various liberties with the story, especially in terms of Elizabeth's reactions to her captors and her rescue (it was Elizabeth who asked a police officer, "You think I'm that Elizabeth Smart girl everyone's looking for, don't you?", not the other way around).

Was it a good movie? Perhaps. I think it did a good job at capturing some of the emotions of the family (it almost entirely skips any depiction of the emotions of the entire state, who were all united in their concern for Elizabeth). I think that the movie was terribly unfair to the local police (who were handling the case as they had to, even if it wasn't to the satisfaction of the Smart family), and that it skewed enough events so that I can't accept anything from the movie as fact. The movie also failed to address the traumas that Elizabeth must have suffered in captivity, but I agree with the producers that it would not have been right to do so.

It's an okay movie, just don't base your opinions or perceptions of Elizabeth Smart's abduction, captivity, and return on what you saw in this movie.