Lifetime
Lifetime’s ‘Sunday Night Thrills’ gives us a real mystery-thriller this week full of twists and led by a cast of very familiar faces to Lifetime viewers, many of whom have worked together in previous movies. As a regular viewer, it’s fun to recognize faces and then see the connections to other productions.
Kidnapping My Own Daughter stars Kathryn Kohut as a child services case worker, Fay Walden, who by how she is presented up front is a tireless and dedicated advocate for the children she is charged with keeping safe. As we meet Fay, she is doing a routine safety check with an uncooperative mother, who swears her son is safe, it’s her ex who is making the unfounded accusations. Nonetheless, Fay has to do her job to make sure all is well, and she manages to keep the situation from becoming volatile, keeping the police officers with her at a distance, certain the mother is just scared and not combative, bringing the situation to a satisfying conclusion. Back at her office, Fay’s boss, Janet, insists she finish the day early — it’s Friday — and just relax and enjoy the weekend. Fay’s dedication has led to her being a workaholic, and Janet does not want her best agent burning out so Fay reluctantly leaves early. Fay surprises her husband, Paul, by coming home early … and he’s actually happy. No shenanigans going on there except he’s trying to pick a color for a currently empty room in their house, a room he hints could be used as a nursery … but with Fay’s history of working with kids and her own rough childhood, bringing a child into the world is the last thing she wants to do, but Paul doesn’t press her on it. Do we have one of the rare, happily married couples in a Lifetime movie?!?!
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Things take a turn at dinner, however, when their home is invaded by a man and woman, Harlow and Tess, with Paul getting the bad end of a taser and Fay being abducted. Tess wants to know who has the daughter taken from her after a wellness check three years earlier by Fay’s mentor, Margaret. Margaret has retired and Fay hasn’t kept in touch since Margaret’s husband died about a year earlier, but Fay wants to keep Paul safe so she follows Tess’ demands, which means she has to go back to the office late Friday night to try to get into the files. Unfortunately, the files for Tess’ case are sealed and then security guard Sam shows up to see who is in the building. He is pretty sure Fay was not alone, and Tess whacks him in the head, knocking him out, forcing Fay to leave him and take her to Margaret’s house, while Harlow keeps Paul tied up. Margaret, who is having health issues of her own, is surprised to see Fay and even more surprised when Tess appears wielding a knife, forcing Margaret to give her information, but she insists she did what was best for the safety of the child. Tess is adamant that she did nothing wrong, her child was burned by an ember from a fireworks show and she did all she could to get help. Margaret claims the burn was consistent with a cigarette burn, but before Tess can get any more info the cops show up because Fay hit the panic button at the office and had pulled up Margaret’s picture on the computer monitor, which somehow led the police to her house. Fay feels that something is off and urges Tess to flee because if she is arrested she may never have a chance to see her child again. Tess does leave the house, Paul managed to free himself and surprise Harlow, knocking him out until the police arrived at his house, and Fay continues to dig into the case. She doesn’t know that Margaret has called someone to alert them that they need to talk. Fay even drags Paul into it, taking him to the office the next day, but being surprised when Janet shows up to tie up some loose ends from the night before. She tells Fay that Margaret’s case is sealed and nothing can open the files short of a court order, but Fay thinks there may be hard copies in the storage room in the basement. She and Paul locate the box and take the file, but the alarm goes off in the building. Now someone else is there also looking for the file, which Fay has but the intruder takes the entire box unaware that what he’s looking for is not there. Fay discovers that the files she does have are heavily redacted, which only makes her more certain that something is awry with this case. Tess reappears and it’s clear she’s not a deranged psychopath, she is a distraught mother who did everything by the book to prove she did not harm her daughter, and Margaret was complicit in drumming up the charges against her, but the question is why? From here, the story becomes an edge-of-your-seat thriller as Fay discovers the identity of the people who ‘adopted’ Tess’ daughter, Margaret feels the walls closing in on her, and there is a race against time to expose the truth before time runs out and more people are hurt.
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Kidnapping My Own Daughter is a really terrific thriller, with writer Shawn Riopelle (Not So Perfect Stranger, Murder at the Lighthouse) once again showing his skills in creating believable characters and situations, even though they may be heightened, and making the plot veer in a completely different direction than you might expect, always keeping the viewer engrossed in the story and engaged with the characters. When Tess is first introduced, we believe she is a violent nutcase, but it becomes clear she is just a mother trying to get back the child she believes was wrongly taken from her, jumping through all the hoops the system placed in front of her, but still having the goal posts moved further and further away from her. It’s interesting that she and Harlow don’t even use aliases when they invade Fay’s home because they have a plan in place to go where no one will find them. (Oh, the best laid plans…) But the story builds with Margaret and the reveal of the man who adopted Tess’ daughter Amelia — who is renamed Milly — and all of the nefarious machinations that led to the girl being taken. It isn’t that much of an implausible situation because there are people out there who would do anything to get whatever they wanted when they have the money and power to do so. The man, Jacob Ashford, had both and, while his wife Clara was unable to have children of her own, Margaret’s husband was battling cancer so Jacob saw an opportunity to use his power to help Margaret’s husband in exchange for her help in getting a child without having to fully go through the process. There isn’t anything really over-the-top about the story, and even when Jacob becomes the villain — sadly he does not wear a Black Hoodie, but disguises himself with a ski mask — you just accept it all. That is some really great writing. Director Max McGuire, whose resume is filled with more lighthearted fare for Hallmark Channel, really does a great job of grounding the story, filming in a truly cinematic way (the picture is wider than a standard TV presentation with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen), and working with his actors so well that all of them feel like real people. Everything about this movie makes it feel like it really could have been shown in cinemas.
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The cast is also excellent. Kathryn Kohut shows right from the start how dedicated Fay is to her work, and she is good enough at her job to know when something smells fishy, even when someone she totally trusts and admires is involved. She has a way with talking to the children to let them know she is not a threat, and she also manages to bring that same demeanor to her interactions with Tess, keeping her calm and slowly believing what she is saying is true. Risking her job and career to steal files from her office may be above and beyond, but Kohut manages to make it all believable. Catherine Saindon is truly the standout performer, able to show Tess’ desperation during the home invasion, and quickly breaking down to show that she really isn’t a threat, she is just a mom who wants her daughter back, a woman who has turned to desperate measures because of how the system has treated her. I think if any of us were wrongly accused of some bad behavior, we’d go to great lengths to prove our innocence. Saindon has that ability to bring us to her side, then believe what Tess is alleging, through her skilled and authentic performance. She and Kohut work together brilliantly.
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Debra Hale is also terrific as Margaret. She has a way of speaking and carrying herself at first so that we don’t know she’s really holding her cards close to her vest. As the situation escalates — and she knows how dangerous Jacob can be — she develops a bit more nervous energy that gives way to despair and resolve, having held on to evidence that vindicated Tess, feeling this whole situation would come back to bite her one day. Her performance in her final scene is gripping, and she even makes us feel a bit sorry for Margaret’s fate because Hale has shown us enough of the character to know she was caught up in a situation, trying to help her husband, that simply got out of her control. Jesse Collin turns in another great performance as Jacob, a man used to getting what he wants, and willing to do anything to make sure no one gets the upper hand. His Jacob has a hair-trigger temper and violent tendencies to protect what he believes is his, but his last scene with Margaret just portrays Jacob as cold and calculating, not needing violence to take care of that situation, just using his words to terrorize the woman. Chris Violette doesn’t have the largest role as Paul, but he shows that Paul is a devoted husband who will put himself at risk for his wife, and even he begins to believe Tess’ story. The poor guy suffers great harm and injury during the course of the story, but Violette still makes Paul and his relationship with Fay authentic, and one of the best married couples we’ve seen on Lifetime in quite a while.
The rest of the cast — Esther Vlessing as Clara (Jacob’s unsuspecting wife), Angelina Capetola as Milly/Amelia, Karen Cliche as Janet, Reon Lucas as Sam the Security Guard, and Madelyn Keys as Callie Rayburn (the mom at the beginning of the movie) — all offer terrific support to the main players and story, each helping make this world feel all the more realistic coupled with the outstanding writing and direction that make Kidnapping My Own Daughter (an exploitive title that doesn’t really do the film justice) a taut and gripping thriller that should not be missed.
Kidnapping My Own Daughter has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.