Cradle Did Fall (2021 Lifetime)
Cast: Ali Liebert, Jonathan Hawley Purvis, Lauren K. Robek, Matreya Scarrwener
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
A woman poses as an infant photographer to befriend a young mother and steal her baby. (2021)
Thoughts
The movie begins with a baby making the strangest sounds. The mother wakes up and finds her baby is missing or dead? She screams, and we get a title card.
Cut to Taylor, a blonde woman, and her baby, Maya. Her husband is busy with work, leaving TKTK to raise the baby alone most of the time. Dean, the husband, leaves suddenly for a two-week work trip to Stockholm. Taylor has to do some serious convincing, so her husband feels comfortable leaving her alone with the baby. (Which means she probably shouldn’t be left alone with the baby.)
Taylor doesn’t last long on her own and calls her friend Lindsay to help babysit while she goes for a jog in the woods. Someone photographs Taylor on the trails, and she seems unnerved. Lindsay makes Taylor dinner and talks through how being a new parent has been going. Taylor admits that her marriage isn’t going well because Dean isn’t helping with the baby, AND she feels like someone is watching her.
At the park, Taylor catches a woman named Cathy taking her picture. She confronts the woman who says she is a professional photographer who still uses film. Cathy wants to get into portraits and baby photos and offers to take baby photos of Maya to help build up her portfolio. As a surprise, Taylor arranges for Cathy to come to take baby portraits of Maya for Dean.
Taylor and Maya are unsettled in the night and think an intruder is in the house. She calls the police, who send over a detective who assures Taylor that she is safe. He even offers to station an officer outside of the house.
Cathy arrives at Taylor’s house with her assistant Skyler and no equipment. They scope out the place for “the best spot” to take photos. The photoshoot happens, and Cathy wipes down anything she has touched to make sure everything is clean. (Or to erase her fingerprints.) While Cathy discusses pricing and print orders, Skyler sneaks around and unlocks windows to get into the house later.
In the middle of the night, Cathy sneaks into the house and goes all Gollum: “My Precious” as she wraps Maya in a blanket and kidnaps her.
The following day a disoriented and confused Taylor wakes up on the couch. (She was drugged.) When Talyor goes to Maya’s crib and finds it empty, she freaks out. (Ali Liebert makes good acting choices here.) The police are called, and the Detective returns. She tells the police about Cathy Driver and Skyler coming to the house.
The Detective tracks down Cathy Driver, and she denies ever meeting Taylor. There is no evidence or sign of a baby. Taylor tries to rationalize what is happening, but she is coming across as frantic and upset. Lindsey steps in and takes over, speaking to the Detective. He thinks that Taylor could have hurt her baby.
Lindsay and Taylor look for information on Cathy and Skyler but come up short. They find an old employer of Skyler’s and speak with her old boss. The boss won’t share any information without a subpoena. On their way out of the office, a co-worker named Jess tells them that Skyler was obsessed with having a baby and fired because she stopped working and only looked at mommy blogs. They get Skyler’s address and go to the house without a plan but find nothing.
Cathy and Skyler drive around with the baby to avoid being found. Skyler seems to be having a real hard time with the kidnapping. They watch Taylor and Lindsay from a distance. Cathy pretends to be a detective name Cindy and talks with Lindsay. Lindsay shares all the information she learned with Detective Cindy. Lindsay realizes that Detective Cindy doesn’t seem right and goes through her purse and finds Cathy’s ID. It is too late because Cathy kills her by strangulation.
The next day, Taylor keys into Lindsay’s home and finds her body hanging in an apparent suicide. Taylor is horrified. The Detective is back with more questions for Taylor, but she is in no mental state to talk. She vows to figure out what happened to Lindsay and her daughter.
Cathy wants Skyler to kill Taylor next. She manipulates Skyler into doing her bidding. Skyler breaks into Taylor’s house via the window she left unlocked and is attacked by Taylor. Taylor waterboards Skyler and demands to know where her daughter is.
Taylor steals Skyle’s phone and texts, Cathy, that the deed is done. Then she goes to the house and hears her baby crying. Taylor goes upstairs and finds a baby monitor next to a baby doll. Cathy and Taylor fight over a pair of scissors, and Cathy is stabbed by Taylor, who screams, “She is MY Daughter.”
Maya and Taylor are reunited, and Dean, the husband, is nowhere to be found. He seriously is the worst. When Dean does come back, he joins Taylor at the police station. The Detective apologizes for not believing Taylor and shares that Skyler was a kidnapped baby herself. Cathy most likely killed Skyler’s biological parents.
Skyler is locked up in a padded cell holding a baby doll that she calls Maya.
In the movie that never ends, we see Taylor, Dean, and Maya at the park two years later. They are being photographed from a far. Dun, Dun, Dun!
Side Note
Minority Report: Lindsay, Detective. Receptionist, Ms. McKay,
“Cradle Did Fall” is based on the real-life crimes of Juliette Parker, a Washington woman who offered free photography services to new or expecting mothers via a Facebook group for Pierce County residents. Read about the real case here.
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Overall rating
🔪🔪🔪 (3 Knives)
🍷🍷🍷🍷 (4 glasses of wine required.)
Live tweet along with @LifetimeUncork using the hashtag #CradleDidFall
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LOL seriously WHERE WAS DEAN this entire movie!? He couldn’t give his wife a phone call while he was stuck overseas???