Cleveland Abduction

2015 "Based on a true story."
6.6| 1h28m| en
Details

A single mother becomes Ariel Castro's first kidnapping victim, and finds herself trapped in his home with two other women for 11 years.

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Lifetime

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Reviews

Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.
FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.
Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
jenniferconleykc I want to start off my review by stating that the victims, Michelle Knight (Now Lily Rose Lee), Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus deserve all respect and dignity for the atrocities they went through.This film does not give them that, especially Amanda and Gina.We can disregard the bad taste in making a film about a horror. The point of such films should be about informing people of what happened and how such horror should be watched out for and how people can help in these situations. It shouldn't be about entertainment.The sin of this film is that it clearly is a message to entertain people and not on the truth.This film focuses on one of the victims, Michelle, and that is probably one of the worst decisions made. It almost ignores the other two which is beyond frustrating. Why were their stories not worth being told? Why did we only see their families grief through the eyes of Michelle? Worse, the grief was shown for the purpose of highlighting the fact that Michelle had no one looking for her. Instead of feeling pain for Gina and Amanda's families, we were supposed to feel sadness that Michelle did not have that. Important moments like when Amanda learns of her mother's death from a news story were told strictly through Michelle's eyes when it would have been better served to have been told from the grieving daughter.Michelle's story deserved to be told, but so did Amanda's and Gina'sAnother problem is because this is a film meant to tell strictly Michelle's story and also with the guise to entertain instead of inform, the filmmakers made the decision to twist the truth to pull focus onto Michelle. This causes problems because in many instances it makes the other two victims appear worse. They present both Amanda and Gina as entirely subservient to Ariel and completely under his thumb from the beginning, both too afraid to even entertain the idea of escaping while Michelle is always looking for ways to get out. When reading the book written by both Amanda and Gina it is clear that both of them tried to find ways of getting out, including a moment where Amanda considered stealing the very van they were all abducted in. By trying to prop up Michelle as the "strong one" they make the other two look meek and ignore the bravery of ALL THREE of them.But the example that bothers me the most is at the very end of the film. After the three of them are rescued it shows them all trying to move on. In a particularly tragic scene Gina informs Michelle she wants to stop talking to her for a while so she can move on. Its' sad because its supposed to highlight the fact that Michelle is alone again, no family, no son and now now help from the other two people she could share her story with.The problem is that this simply is NOT true. The fact is it was Michelle who needed to separate herself from Gina and Amanda and told them both this, even though they are still in contact to this day. Gina and Amanda see each other every week and are in constant contact and in fact wrote a book together. Michelle needed to separate herself from them in order to heal, since she was older and went through some atrocities they did not (such as being forced to miscarry 5 times and losing custody of her son) it is certainly understandable that she would need space from her two fellow captors in order to healFor the film to completely lie and try to paint Michelle as the one abandoned is a complete and utter disservice to Amanda and Gina. It is horrifying that they would decide to mute the voices of two of the victims. I know this film was based on Michelle's book, but that doesn't mean it was right to almost ignore the stories of Gina and Amanda. All three of them deserve more than this piece of crap.
Al Stewart From the start it was clear that this TV movie was based on Michelle Knight's story and not that of Amanda Berry & Gina Dejesus'.It felt like only half of the story was being told, and not even truthfully told (the tying up and hoisting of Michelle) There was no way the makers of this film could ever have portrayed the tense,traumatic, life threatening ordeal that spanned 10 years into a movie of around 113 minutes. It started quite promisingly but rapidly descended into a rushed, lazy account with mediocre acting and what I can only assume is artistic license, why else would they stray from the actual story written by the actual person abducted! I'm sure this will not be the only movie made about such a horrific and truly astonishing event, my only hope is that it is made with more depth, thought, accuracy,and better acting. Get a decent director on board, one who cares about the delicate subject at hand.
rknaak1 This is hands-down THE WORST movie I have ever seen!! Everything about it is awful! The acting, the dialog, the storyline.... It is a large span of real-life time and tragedy jammed into a 90 minute made-for-TV movie, and all it leaves you with are questions, confusion, and wonder as to how anyone could think that this 90 minute run-of-events could be classified as a "story" and made into a movie. I realize that it is all based on true events, however the way the chosen events were written and portrayed in this movie do not compound together to make a storyline. It is a bunch of factual events thrown together and filmed. And very poorly done at that.
Spotif Eyeball (spotifeyeball) Vapid, bland acting on the part of the lead who plays Michelle Knight, does not look like her, act like her, talk like her, I cannot understand why this untalented woman was cast as this part. She showed the least emotion of the three female actresses and I was wincing more for how bad her acting was than how horribly Michelle Knight was treated. I read Michelle's book and have studied this case and watched her interviews, this lead was horribly miscast. The male lead was not much better, he was way too good-looking to be that demon-man monster, he was too nice and not psychopathic enough at all. It was way too much of a story to cram into 90 minutes, I am not sure any movie or documentary or book will ever do justice to what happened to these girls and the daughter produced in captivity. The actresses who played Gina and Amanda were far better cast and were credible actors. As far as the storyline, it was superficial and glossed over so many important issues, like how the police ignored this man-- a man who had beaten his common-law wife to a pulp years before kidnapping these girls, how the police came to the home when there were reports of screams and noises and did not attempt to enter; how somehow this man was not considered a suspect in the circle of at least Gina's world when he had a violent history and knew her by way of his own daughter. I am stunned the police were this blind, how this man was literally hiding in plain sight for so long. My best wishes for these four victims in that home is that that their futures are filled with every good thing that they would like from now on, that they will find love and appreciation and healing and fulfillment. But if you do not know the story do not rely on this cheeseball Lifetime show. Read Michelle's book, read Amanda and Gina's book, watch their interviews. This was a waste of time and did not do them justice in any way. Someone out there make a better movie than this about what happened for 11 years in Cleveland!