Abduction Runs in the Family (2021 Lifetime)
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Cast: Jessica Morris, Jason-Shane Scott,
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
Single mother Alyssa is a successful author who was kidnapped as a child before making a safe return seven years later. Given her past, she is overprotective of her young daughter, Emma. When Alyssa has a panic attack she visits her therapist and admits her senses are heightened due to her captor, Miles’, recent release from prison. Days later, Emma is abducted from a park, sending Alyssa into a tailspin. Believing Miles is the culprit, Alyssa is frustrated when she learns he has an alibi. Miles suggests there is someone else copying his past abduction of Alyssa and urges her to let him help find Emma. Desperate to save her daughter, Alyssa must decide if trusting her former captor is worth the risk. Jessica Morris, Sarah Navratil, Jason-Shane Scott, James Hyde, Jason Cook, Tryphena Wade, Charlotte Hare star. (2021)
Recap/Wine Thoughts
The movie begins with a little girl named Alyssa being abducted by a man with a mustache. He renames her Sophie and makes her wear a brown wig. She was kidnapped and held captive for seven years.
Flash to a grownup, Alyssa Manning, who hosts a successful podcast, “Daring to Be,” about resilience while raising a young daughter of her own named Emma. Alyssa is releasing a memoir about the experience 25 years later. Oh, and the man who kidnapped her, Miles Simon, is also being released from prison. BIG ANNIVERSARY!
Alyssa has her daughter on surveillance camera and has a cop friend named Grace. Alyssa’s boyfriend, Grant, offers to spend the night to help her feel more secure during an unusual time. (Alyssa has terrible dreams about her abduction.) He tells Alyssa that he wants to be around for the long haul.
At a restaurant, Alyssa reluctantly lets her daughter go to the bathroom by herself, and the brat hides from her mother, causing a panic attack. When they come home, they are bombarded by the press, who are hungry for a statement about Mile’s newfound freedom. Alyssa makes a therapy appointment to talk through her trauma that is returning to the surface. The therapist suggests Alyssa talk to Miles and confront her past.
Alyssa has a meeting for her book, and she agrees to let Grant watch her daughter but becomes worried when he doesn’t return her texts. Alyssa rushes home and scolds Grant. They break up because she doesn’t think she can trust him.
At the same park where Alyssa was abducted, Emma runs around and flies a kite. Alyssa gets a phone call and turns her back for a second, and Emma is missing. She calls Grace and a detective to help her find her daughter. The detective suggests that it could be Alyssa’s ex-husband, but Alyssa knows it is Miles.
The detective and Grace question Miles and search his home. As he waits outside her looks at Alyssa longingly. Alyssa can’t just sit around and storms into his house. She finds a framed baby photo of her daughter and screams at him, but his alibi is airtight. Miles apologizes to Alyssa and promises he doesn’t know where Emma is.
Tony, the ex-husband, shows up livid that he is a suspect. He tells Alyssa that she manifested the whole thing, and he has nothing to do with her disappearance.
Also, a suspect is Grant. He tells Alyssa that he was at a conference out of town and shows her his boarding passes.
After Alyssa’s assistant, Sarah, talks through statistics about people who kidnap. (Which include women in their late 30’s who can’t have kids AKA Grace!!) Alyssa can’t get the thought out of her head and breaks into Grace’s house and finds adoption papers. Grace catches her and promises that she loves Emma and Alyssa. Then Grace shades the hell out of Sarah, implying she killed someone to get the podcast assistant job.
A ransom video comes in, Emma cries to her mother that they only have 24 hours to find her. Alyssa decides to talk to Miles again and see if he can help her figure out where her daughter is. Miles suggests that it could be a copycat.
Sarah watches the video and notices a blanket in the background that looks precisely like the blanket Alyssa describes in her memoir. She sends Alyssa back to Miles.
Miles explains that he knows who kidnapped Emma, his daughter Sophie. He lost custody of her and lost her to the system. He kidnapped Alyssa to replace his missing daughter. Alyssa goes to Grace and the detective with Sophie’s information, and they say he is just manipulating her again. (Grace agrees to run an age progression picture on the childhood photo of Sophie.)
The next time Alyssa sees Sarah, she recognizes the “S” necklace she wears because it is in the photo of child Sophie. Alyssa fires Sarah and accuses Sarah of being out to get her. Sarah gaslights Alyssa and leaves angrily.
Alyssa shows Miles a photo of Sarah, and he confirms that she is his daughter. They break into Sarah’s house and find the blanket but no Emma. They find a deed for the old home where Miles kept Alyssa.
Grant beats them to the house and is shot—Alyssa bursts into the house and brawls with Sarah, who grabs a knife and tells Miles and Alyssa that she hates them both. She wants them to both pay and plans to kill Emma so that she can frame Miles. After Sarah’s monologue is over, Alyssa throws her out a window, falling to her death.
Alyssa and Miles meet one last time and thanks him for helping her find her daughter, but she cannot have him in her life even if she forgives him.
Side Note
Minority Report: Grace, waiter, detective, cop,
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*** I’ve updated the rating system moving forward. Knives represent # of kills. Wine is over enjoyment (NOT a value judgment) on a 1-5 scale.
I will use the following tags for those who want to know whether to watch or skip: Pour it Up (Would Recommend) or Put A Cork In It (Would Not Recommend).
Overall rating
Number of Kills:
🔪🔪 (2 Knives)
Enjoyment Level: 🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine.)
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But can we please talk about how far she launched out that window at the end? Like when she gets pushed out it’s so close but then when they pan over to her body she’s like 100 feet away from the window. Cracks me up every single time.
The movie was okay although not very original. My main complaint is that Jessica Morris spoke her lines so fast I couldn’t understand most of what she said. And it’s not me – I understood everyone else in the cast but not her. Why couldn’t she slow down a bit?
The movie was okay although not very original. My main complaint is that Jessica Morris spoke her lines so fast I couldn’t understand most of what she said. And it’s not me – everyone else in the cast was easy to understand. Why did she have to speak so quickly?