Une famille en cavale

'Family in Hiding' delivers a gripping story that keeps you on edge. The suspense is built gradually, creating a realistic sense of tension.

The pacing is well-balanced, with quieter moments that allow the tension to breathe before plunging back into high-stakes situations.

Overall, Family in Hiding is a well-executed TV Movie that balances drama and suspense effectively. A compelling watch for anyone who likes thrillers.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raids a warehouse near Alhambra (this is in the Los Angeles, CA area), looking for a big narcotics dealer. After about ten minutes, wealthy and attractive divorcée Brenda Strong (as Carol Peterson) witnesses a related murder in her office's underground parking structure. She is able to identify the killer from FBI mug shots. He is on the loose and looking to silence Ms. Strong, so she and her children are placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program. This puts a strain on mature teenagers Elyse Levesque (as Alicia Peterson) and Brett Dier (as Matthew "Matt" Peterson). She is going to miss boyfriend Christopher Jacot (as Brian Jackson) and he won't be able to play basketball...

You know there are going to be problems when the Federal Witness Protection Program people give Strong a funny wig to wear whenever she leaves the house. Watching her run for the wig when someone visits the family is fun. Nobody expects criminals hunting the family might actually look in the windows and/or enter the home, because Strong does not wear the wig inside. The three main stars are cast very well and look like a family – however, the wig makes Strong look like she's wearing a wig to draw attention to herself. Bag guy Hrothgar Mathews (as Roger Nahanee) and his pals use basketball and the boyfriend to track he family, but they need only look for the woman in the obvious wig.

**** Family in Hiding (8/6/06) Timothy Bond ~ Brenda Strong, Elyse Levesque, Brett Dier, Hrothgar Mathews

This is a TV movie I saw just today.

The story premise is nothing new. An innocent bystander sees a murder or other crime being committed. They are also seen by the "bad guys," but they escape and go to the cops. Then to protect themselves before they testify for the Feds, to protect themselves and their family, they go into the Witness Protection Program.

The acting of the leading adults in the film was fairly good, especially the family's mother. The rest of the family also did credible jobs. The acting and casting of the "bad guys" was pretty typical, but nothing to write home about. Overall however, the film rolled along for two hours fairly quickly, and did not have many real slow spots, which helped me with its rating.

It's not an "edge of your seat movie," by any means, but for a TV movie using fairly unknown actors, it wasn't bad. I have seen much worse movies that were made for the big screen and had "big name" casts and much higher budgets.

A single woman and her two children become a "Family in Hiding" in this 2006 film, done in Canada.

Brenda Strong of "Desperate Housewives" fame plays the mother, Carol Peterson. After witnessing a murder, the entire family is put into the Witness Protection Program until Carol can testify.

All I've got to say is, if you ever witness a high profile murder, run the other way. The Witness Protection Program is run by the Marx Brothers and is strictly from hunger, at least in this film.

The family relocates and gets to live in a dump with no security and is given barely enough money to live on. The people in charge haven't created a job history for Carol, so she can't supplement the money they've given her.

The best part is that one of the thugs after the family infiltrates the Protection office and, after hitting a few buttons on the boss' computer, finds out where the Petersons are living.

Now, don't you think they'd be a little more careful than that? Anyone ever heard of your computer being frozen when you're away from your desk? Or getting into your computer via a password? Or how about putting fake info on the computer and putting the real location, using a code, in a wall safe? MORONS. To protect and serve - forget about it.

Carol figures out there's a leak immediately, and when she tells the man in charge of her relocation about it, he continues to give the new person in his office all kinds of information so he can call it in to the defendant.

Only a good cast can save this movie, and it does, even if the film isn't terribly exciting. Strong, a likable actress, and the rest of the cast are very good, and you really can believe they're a family.

The end of the movie has a chiron that tells how many people the Witness Protection Program has relocated and that they have an 89% conviction rate as a result. With the way they are depicted in "Family in Hiding," this is bound to bring gasps of disbelief from the audience.

Brenda Strong does it again - makes what would otherwise be a rather standard film something highly interesting and watchable. The unsung star of "Desperate Housewives" gets plenty of screen time here as she stars in "Family in Hiding", which is literally about a family in hiding.

Strong plays Carol Peterson, hard-working solo mother who witnesses the murder of a state attorney, and as the murderer and his gang uncover who she is, the FBI place her and her children into the Witness Protection Program. There, the lives of Carol and her children Matt and Alicia are turned upside down as they try to adjust to their new life while the murderer tracks them down.

Strong is, of course, fantastic, and the acting of pretty much everyone else in the film makes it a TV movie of considerably high standards. Brett Dier plays Matt, and I predict that he will go on to have a very prosperous acting career. Elyse Levesque does an admirable job playing Alicia. Christopher Jacot has a small role as Alicia's boyfriend Brian, and Gary Hetherington gives a good performance as the Peterson's handler in the program, Pritchard.

The Peterson family goes through all the emotions and possible scenarios of what one expects someone to go through if they have just bee uprooted from their lives and placed in a new city with new identities while a murderer hunts them down. This is one suspenseful drama with very little wrong with it, other than it is a bit slow in a couple of areas, and at times the production values are a bit low. Other than those minor issues, it is well worth a watch, especially for fans of Brenda Strong.