Cleveland Abduction (TV Movie 2015)

Cleveland Abduction: Directed by Alex Kalymnios. With Taryn Manning, Raymond Cruz, Katie Sarife, Samantha Droke. A single mother who becomes the first victim of kidnapper Ariel Castro finds herself trapped in his home for 11 years, where she eventually becomes a friend and sister to two other women who are taken captive by Castro.

“The Cleveland abductions ? You remember that donu0026#39;t you ? No ? Let me refresh your memory . , A couple of years ago police in Cleveland Ohio raided a house belonging to one Ariel Castro who as it turned out kept three young women as captives . One of whom Michelle Knight had been held prisoner for eleven years . You remember it now and itu0026#39;d be impossible to forget this true life horror story and this TVM tells of Michelleu0026#39;s ordeal u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow to be fair having the story told through a television film via the Lifetime Channel is both a blessing and a curse . A blessing that weu0026#39;re not going to be subjected to extreme exploitation thatu0026#39;s going to keep us awake for nights on end due to the disturbing subject material but at the same time a curse that the restrain of a TVM really doesnu0026#39;t do the story justice . In this medium itu0026#39;s a rather uneasy mix but doesnu0026#39;t stop an opening caption that u0026quot;Contains distressing scenes . Viewer discretion advisedu0026quot; . The constant rapes and beatings of Michelle are thankfully left mainly to the imagination but at the same time youu0026#39;re left thinking that this isnu0026#39;t due to any cerebral reason except that youu0026#39;re not allowed to show that type of stuff on the channel . In other words the story is shaped by outside criteria that have got absolutely nothing to do with the story and everything to do with outside factors . Another irritant is that you never get to feel much in the way of Michelleu0026#39;s hopes of ever being rescued being dashed time and again which Iu0026#39;m sure must have constantly happened . None of this is helped by the feeling of time passing being conspicuous by its absence and much of this TVM feels like it has taken place in 90 minutes rather than the eleven years of Michelleu0026#39;s real time imprisonment . Thereu0026#39;s not enough foundations for the audience to emotionally invest enough in to Michelleu0026#39;s ordeal which is terrible but at the same time abstract which means despite the compelling subject matter the characters remain entirely distant”