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LMN’s ‘Wicked Revenge’ theme concludes with an abduction thriller, familiar faces, way too much plot and an abundance of red herrings that will often have you wondering what in the heck is going on.
My Daughter Was Taken stars Patrice Goodman as Betty Prost, former big city, high-powered attorney who gave up her career to move to a small town outside of Philadelphia with her husband and daughter, opening a flower shop as her new business … but for reasons that aren’t all that clear the marriage ended. Now Betty is off on vacation at some seaside resort, video chatting with daughter Zara. During the call, Zara hears something and goes to investigate, while Betty can hear screams and things breaking. A figure appears on the screen (just a sleeve and a glove are visible) and says in a distorted voice, ‘I saw you. I’ll find you.’ Betty immediately flies home and meets her ex, Sebastian, at the house. He tells her the house is clean with no signs of a break-in or a fight. And he’s right because whoever took Zara must have brought a cleaning crew with them because the place is spotless, including the kitchen counter which Betty could see was piled with dirty dishes while on the call with Zara. And of course, Sebastian and the police don’t believe Betty because … Zara has pulled these disappearing acts before, so they just need to remain calm and wait for her to return. Betty is not going to sit idly by while she believes her daughter’s life is in jeopardy, so she gets in touch with Zara’s friend (and roommate, apparently) Keira, to try to get some information. Keira is less-than helpfull, being all kinds of shady, but finally reveals Zara has a boyfriend, much older (maybe 30, gasp!), oh and he’s fresh out of prison. Not to worry though, they knew each other before he went to prison so this isn’t some Love After Lockup sitch. Betty looks around Zara’s room for any clues, and Keira finally gets a little cooperative and gives Betty a satchel full of Zara’s belongings, including letters from boyfriend Charles, but after Betty leaves, Keira gets a text message that they had an agreement that she would keep Zara’s stuff and the texter is always watching. Betty also believes she’s being followed and has seen a man who she keeps dodging, and before she leaves the building she sees the man and someone in a … Black Hoodie! She makes it out, but Black Hoodie somehow gets into Keira’s apartment — another building with no working locks apparently — and stabs her in the stomach, snapping a photo of her body lying on the floor which he will send to Betty later as a warning.
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Betty is sure someone has Zara, and is almost certain Charles has something to do with her abduction. She asks neighbors Whitney and James (Whitney is apparently the Gladys Kravitz of the neighborhood) if their security cameras caught anyone suspicious lurking around her house the night of the abduction, but Whitney clearly lies when she says the cameras have been down for a week. Betty decides that she is the only person who can save her daughter, so she concocts a plan with Sebastian and James to pull a car swap (with Betty donning a wig and leather jacket) to be sure the man she believes is following her is thrown off the trail. She needn’t worry about that because the man is back at Whitney’s house to rub her out since she had previously witnessed him sitting outside the house in his car, banging on his window and telling him to get the hell out of the neighborhood. Luckily, Betty had a big pot of soup on the stove (it needed more salt) that she throws at the assailant, but he manages to get off a shot, hitting her in the leg, but the pain of the burning soup causes him to drop the gun. Whitney picks it up and the hit man flees, believing Whitney’s claims that she gave the police his description and license plate number. Whitney and James had a double-tap emergency alert set up on their phones and she was able to trigger it before she was shot, so feeling that Betty was not being followed, James and Sebastian went back to check on Whitney. It was a minor wound so she will be fine, but Betty is now on her own. Later, a man approaches Sebastian at the house and reveals himself to be Charles’ brother, Patrick, and he has a bag of Zara’s belongings that she had left at the house. Sebastian tells him they believe Charles has taken Zara, and Patrick assures him that he will get to the bottom of this with his brother. Zara, however, is locked in an old shed off the main road in Bucks County, PA, and she is discovered by a passing hiker (who uses a magical pen knife to unlock the deadbolt) who carries her (?) to the hospital. Zara has tracked down Charles’ address and she first spots Patrick going into the house, thinking it may be Charles. She also believes Charles has Keira’s phone and dials the number but the man she sees does not react. Later she sees another man leave the house, and she dials the number again. He looks at the phone in his pocket and she now knows this is Charles, so she follows him to a local bar where she lurks in plain sight, yet somehow the hit man, Johnny, doesn’t see her as he enters the building. Betty enters, parks herself at the bar, buys a tipsy gentleman a shot, snaps a selfie but is really getting a shot of Charles and Johnny, and leaves, sending the photo to Sebastian. Meanwhile, Zara is having trouble remembering who she is or what happened — or she may be putting on an act — and a really, really suspicious nurse is asking her a lot of prying questions. Is she somehow tied up with Johnny, Patrick and Charles? Betty does a little too much snooping and ends up being captured herself, waking up in a basement, but able to get out. She hears two men arguing and spies Johnny getting berated by another unseen man. Johnny is not in good shape after a beating because he was supposed to kill Zara but he couldn’t because she reminded him of his daughter, so that just got him killed for his insubordination. At this point, everyone still believes Zara is locked in the shed. Betty tries to run out, but Charles sneaks up on her and pulls her into another room, assuring her that he had nothing to do with Zara’s disappearance and if she can trust him he will help get Zara back. Betty actually does believe Charles loves Zara, and she lets Sebastian know of their plan (poor Charles also takes a beating from his brother for allowing a girl to come between them). Sebastian has been alerted by the police about a young woman at a local hospital in Bucks County, and Charles tells him that it would be the closest hospital for them to have taken Zara to, so they all converge on the hospital. Patrick is there as well, posing as a police officer to ask Zara some questions. Her fuzzy memories come into focus and she remembers the man as one of the two who abducted her and she lets the shady nurse know, and she creates a diversion to get the fake cop out of the room and Zara out of the building to a safe spot. With Patrick, Betty, Charles, Sebastian, and Nurse Shady all at the hospital, will they be able to save Zara … and will one of more of them end up on the wrong side of a gun?
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When I say there is a lot going on in My Daughter Was Taken, there is a lot going on as the plot has to juggle several characters and connecting plot lines, forcing too many characters to act more suspicious than they should in an attempt to keep us on our toes and not guess too early who actually abducted Zara. The script by Roxanne Boisvert and Alexandre Carrière does manage to build suspense, and it is a novel twist that the abducted person is found early in the story without anyone actually knowing … but wouldn’t the police have reached out to local jurisdictions in the surrounding areas to inquire about any Jane Doe or missing persons cases? Betty and Sebastian should have known much sooner that Zara was at the hospital instead of just guessing. You have to appreciate all of the different paths the story takes, so we’ll give credit for the creativity when so many of these movies are pretty straightforward and easily solved before the midway point, but at the same time it’s a bit of an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ style of writing. Boisvert also directed and manages to keep all of the puzzle pieces in order and fitting together, although later in the story it goes from broad daylight to middle of the night rather quickly. The only real issue with the direction comes from the performances. Does the director suggest to the actors how to play their roles, or do they just let the actors figure that out on their own?
Patrice Goodman is fine as Betty, giving her all the determination any mother would have trying to save her daughter’s life when no one else believes that she’s in danger. You believe she is this girl’s mother, and she is not entertaining any nonsense from anyone. On the other hand, Scott Gibson plays Sebastian a bit suspiciously at first, making us think that perhaps he did have something to do with Zara’s disappearance since there seems to be some animosity between him and Betty. Just the way he tries to convince Betty that the house is immaculate and she’s over-reacting makes him seem like a suspect. But that eventually changes, mainly after his encounter with Patrick and then he becomes a concerned father and even reveals that there is still love for Betty in his heart. Edwige Jean-Pierre as Whitney also acts really suspicious when Betty comes to her about the cameras, making us think that she and James are somehow involved, but why would they want to take Zara? It becomes clear that she isn’t a suspect during her encounter with Johnny, and she does reveal to Betty why she lied about the cameras (a humorous moment in the story). Chimwemwe Miller adds a bit of humor to his role as her husband James, very much like Abner Kravitz, just sitting there reading his paper while Whitney goes about putting her nose in peoples’ business. But he does have a nice moment with Sebastian in pushing him to admit there is still something between him and Betty. Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova gives a nice performance as Zara, seeing her first having a good conversation with her mom and then having to play the victim and make people believe she has no memory of her attack or even who she is. It was a nice touch in the story to reveal that was her defense mechanism as she had no idea who to trust, especially that nurse who was way too up in her business.
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As far as bad guys go, Dennis Andres is terrific as Patrick. We first meet him with Charles at their parents’ grave, and he seems like a caring big brother, even though he may have some anger about Charles’ path in life that led him to prison. But as the big brother, he has vowed to take care of Charles, and he even shows that when he meets Sebastian. When he is revealed to have had Zara kidnapped, it almost comes as a surprise because he’s the one character who doesn’t act suspicious but … his voice is the dead giveaway. But he still gives a good performance having to switch personalities from what we see in the beginning and what we see after he kills Johnny. Brett Geddes is also good as Charles. The first time we see him is in a memory from Sebastian who walked in on him sort of manhandling Zara at the flower shop during an argument, which of course sets up him to be her abductor. But his crimes were fraud, not anything violent, and he shows Betty and the audience that he really is a gentle soul who loves Zara, a complete contrast to Patrick, a man who wants to be nothing like his big brother. Ash Catherwood is also fine as Johnny, even if he talks a bit too much when he’s aiming a gun at Whitney. He may have too soft of a heart to be a real hit man though, and we even feel a bit sorry for him as Patrick ends his life.
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Now, here is where we have to question if acting choices were made by the actors or the director. Juliette Schroeder is totally shady as Zara’s friend Keira. Why she treats Betty so poorly is never really explained. Perhaps it’s because she’s just trying to protect Zara’s secret about having a boyfriend, but she just comes off as mean and uncaring that Zara is missing. She only finally lightens up when she hands over the letters, but she’s already rubbed Betty and the audience the wrong way by that point. So was it her choice to play the role like that or did Boisvert suggest she play the role like that? Also questionable is the performance of Alexandra Petrachuk as Nurse Carine. Every question she asks Zara seems like she is trying to get information out of her to relay back to Patrick. She never seems sincere in wanting to help Zara, she is just pumping her for info. And when the sheriff arrives to ask some questions, Nurse Carine lurks in the doorway again like she is trying to find out something to use against Zara. It’s not until Patrick shows up as a cop and Zara pretends she’s not feeling well that we see she is helping Zara … but even in that moment we still wonder if Zara should be trusting her (the scenes is quite hilarious, unintentionally, as an army of hospital personnel swarm into the small bathroom in Zara’s hospital room while Patrick watches, and then Zara is wheeled out on a gurney like she’s dead!). It just bugged me that she had to behave so oddly unnecessarily when she could have just been the friend Zara needed in that moment (I mean, she was to Zara, even bringing her some clothes, but to the audience she seemed untrustworthy).
In the end, My Daughter Was Taken is a decent thriller with some good performances, it’s just a bit overly ambitious with a lot of plot threads and characters who behave much to shady than anyone would in real life. But the twist of Zara being found early without anyone knowing was a nice spin on this type of story, and the performances of Andres and Geddes really help elevate the production. It may not be appointment television, but it’s entertaining enough if you have some time to kill.
My Daughter Was Taken has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes, and is rated TV-14.