Baby Sellers (2013 Lifetime)

Emmy and Golden Globe winner Kirstie Alley being amazing, as usual.

Baby Sellers (2013 Lifetime)

Cast: Jennifer Finnigan, Kirstie Alley, Arjun Gupta

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Synopsis (via Lifetime)

Inspired by true events, the Lifetime Original Movie, Baby Sellers, exposes the shocking international criminal enterprise of infant trafficking. Stars Emmy winner Jennifer Finnigan and Emmy and Golden Globe winner Kirstie Alley.

Thoughts

The movie begins in India. (This movie clearly had a budget.) A man is selling his baby as his, understandably, wife screams hysterically. Is the baby shipped to the US? We next cut to women being trafficked in a large truck. It is inhumane living conditions, and even though police are trailing them. The cops wait until catching the traffickers in the act to intervene. Nicole and her partner eventually step in and save the women and babies. Nicole is determined to stop trafficking and goes undercover.

Carla Huxley (Kristie Alley) speaks at a “Road to Love” event about adoption. Her practices are questionable, but she even uses her daughter Alyssa’s adoption to legitimize her business. She doesn’t even appear to want to parent the child, pawning her off on an assistant and banning her from eating desserts.

Cut to Rio de Janeiro, where Carla has connections. The nurse screens mothers to find a match and select a young mother with no family or connection to the baby’s father and steal her baby.

Nicole continues to work with Carla and joins about 15 couples on a trip to India to “adopt” newborn babies. It is insane how well connected Carla is. She brings the Americans to an orphanage. Nicole finds a secret room full of newborns. Then she fakes sick to go back and get a better look around. Nicole meets a doctor and sees him treating a sick baby. The doctor insists the family keep the baby in the orphanage. Nicole sees the baby has a peculiar birthmark on the face.

The baby is kidnapped, and Nicole works with the baby’s father to determine who took them. They chase down a suspect and follow him around town. The operation is elaborate and complicated. Nicole follows leads, but stands out too much to be helpful. The father she was working with saves his daughter but is caught and murdered.

The actress’ who play the mothers of these stolen babies are all amazing and deserve mad props for their fantastic work. It is heartbreaking to watch, made even more impactful by the fact that THIS REALLY HAPPENS IN THE WORLD.

Carla learns that Nicole is undercover and cuts ties. Nicole instead interviews the parents from the agency and finds Mira, the stolen baby from India, with the birthmark. The parents refuse to give back the baby because the adoption was “legal.”

The two women meet face to face. Nicole accuses Carla of selling babies. Nicole continues to travel the world meeting with people who enable Carla’s operation. In Brazilian, a hitman tries to take out Nicole. She overpowers him, and he turns on the doctor who has been stealing the babies from the hospital.

Carla is arrested and to lessen her charges, she agrees to wear a wire to entrap her boss, Rafael. One of Rafael’s men recognizes Nicole and they are both almost murdered. Since Nicole is a badass woman who doesn’t need any saving, she beats him up and is about to arrest him when Carla shoots him. Carla couldn’t have him turning on her and killed him in “self defense.” Carla is not arrested because they have NO EVIDENCE ON HER?

Back in India, we see mother and daughter reunited. It is the ending that we needed for this movie to feel fulfilling, but sadly it is not the case for most of real trafficked humans.

Side Note

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