Jessica Morris portrays Alyssa Manning who was abducted from her family one day in the park by Miles Simon. He is now released back into society Later in the movie, Emma, Alyssa's daughter, is found missing at the same venue of the park. Did Miles do it to get close to Alyssa as an adult or did someone else take Emma and why? You'll have to tune in to find out. But the movie is pretty predictable so I would only watch this once.
8 Reviews
Something doesn't make sense.
rokuteam25 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
In the movie, Miles says his daughter is removed and put into foster care because he had to work extra to pay for medical bills after his wife died. They move her from foster home to foster home so he can't see her again.
I adopted two girs through foster care. When kids are removed, the primary goal is to help the parents so that the kids can be returned home. In his case, he was obviously able to provide a nice clean home. Family Services could have provided subsidized day care or arranged financial assistance to help him with his bills. He should have also been allowed visitation until they made sure he was ready for her to return or building enough of a case to determine he was unfit (which seemed unlikely based on the conduct portrayed for him in the movie),
In our case, the biological parenta simply could not care for themselves let alone the kids, but it took about three years of intervention and monitoring before the biological parents' rights were removed and we were able to adopt. What Family Services did in this movie seemed more like kidnapping rather than intervention to keep the child safe.
I adopted two girs through foster care. When kids are removed, the primary goal is to help the parents so that the kids can be returned home. In his case, he was obviously able to provide a nice clean home. Family Services could have provided subsidized day care or arranged financial assistance to help him with his bills. He should have also been allowed visitation until they made sure he was ready for her to return or building enough of a case to determine he was unfit (which seemed unlikely based on the conduct portrayed for him in the movie),
In our case, the biological parenta simply could not care for themselves let alone the kids, but it took about three years of intervention and monitoring before the biological parents' rights were removed and we were able to adopt. What Family Services did in this movie seemed more like kidnapping rather than intervention to keep the child safe.
This movie almost lost me in the first half hour...
CranberriAppl28 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
When Alyssa, a woman now a mother, who knows what it was like to be kidnapped, lets her young daughter (maybe 7) go to a public bathroom by herself. I couldn't believe she did that all because Emma was begging and for some reason Alyssa couldn't get up from the table and take her? Had that been the moment little Emma was taken, it would have been extremely difficult to keep watching. Then she flips out when her, sort of boyfriend Grant, takes Emma for ice cream but leaves his phone in the car. Then when Emma actually is taken (not a spoiler), Alyssa turns her back. She's all over the place.
I watched this because I generally like Jen Morris and Jason-Shane's movies. I remember them from soaps back in the day. However, I didn't really care for Alyssa. She was a pretty self-involved character and I don't blame Emma's father for being pissed at her. She allowed the detectives to make him a person of interest w/o 1.letting him know their daughter was missing or letting him know she kind of let them think that he could take her. I totally didn't blame his lashing out at her. Also, in the movie, all we know about him is her POV, so when he does lash out about how she has affected his relationship with his daughter, it actually makes sense given her behavior by that point in the movie.
What makes her even more self-involved is that she uses her friend Grace and her never-mind-he-isn't-her-boyfriend Grant as babysitters for Emma, and yet when this happens, she either sics the police on them or pursues them herself as suspects. She allows them to be blindsided by being considered suspects or she's breaking into their homes.
In Deadly Seduction (only mentioning this movie bc it's very similar), the protag didn't actually believe someone close to her was capable of the crimes happening. This is in spite of the character humiliating her in her personal life. Very different from Alyssa, who by the end of this really doesn't deserve those people remaining in her life. I really didn't care for how both of them allowed her to get away with accusing them of crimes because of reasons she made up in her head...and ironically, it was a pretty clear example of what Emma's dad was saying. Grace nor Grant need a friend like Alyssa.
I also love when these movies (bc it's Lifetime) make the men suspicious or not that great, but also because it's Lifetime, the villain is a woman. I sort of suspected whodunit very early because you just pick up vibes in these movies. I wasn't surprised by the villain at all nor their motivation.
I am fine with her captor being released after serving his time. That did not bother me. However, trying to get us to believe that losing his daughter to foster care bc of XYZ caused him to kidnap and destroy lives...and get out of jail with a victim that treats him better than the father of her child was not acceptable. She was so comfortable with him yet thinks he could have kidnapped Emma?
It's a very basic Lifetime movie that's watchable for at least one viewing. Like I said above, the movie almost ruins itself with the early blunder of letting the little girl go off by herself given Alyssa's history and her PTSD, but I kept watching. I wanted little Emma to be ok, but I got tired of Alyssa. I like Jason-Shane and Jason Cook, but maybe JS should have been Emma's father. The movie should have had Emma's father more involved in trying to find her and he's never seen again after his one scene especially given that the movie makes it seem like Alyssa is the impediment to his relationship with his daughter.
The climax is a little bizarre with the movie making the villain seem more deranged than the original kidnapper. The movie gives Alyssa a better "relationship" and closure with her kidnapper than Emma's dad and that's just so odd to me. I guess there's supposed to be some Stockholm Syndrome aspects (Lifetime's interpretation), but she's a little too nice to the man who stole her from her family and traumatically changed her life and basically made this situation possible. It's so bizarre.
Something positive: Abduction Runs in the Family is a better and more clever title than this movie deserves.
I watched this because I generally like Jen Morris and Jason-Shane's movies. I remember them from soaps back in the day. However, I didn't really care for Alyssa. She was a pretty self-involved character and I don't blame Emma's father for being pissed at her. She allowed the detectives to make him a person of interest w/o 1.letting him know their daughter was missing or letting him know she kind of let them think that he could take her. I totally didn't blame his lashing out at her. Also, in the movie, all we know about him is her POV, so when he does lash out about how she has affected his relationship with his daughter, it actually makes sense given her behavior by that point in the movie.
What makes her even more self-involved is that she uses her friend Grace and her never-mind-he-isn't-her-boyfriend Grant as babysitters for Emma, and yet when this happens, she either sics the police on them or pursues them herself as suspects. She allows them to be blindsided by being considered suspects or she's breaking into their homes.
In Deadly Seduction (only mentioning this movie bc it's very similar), the protag didn't actually believe someone close to her was capable of the crimes happening. This is in spite of the character humiliating her in her personal life. Very different from Alyssa, who by the end of this really doesn't deserve those people remaining in her life. I really didn't care for how both of them allowed her to get away with accusing them of crimes because of reasons she made up in her head...and ironically, it was a pretty clear example of what Emma's dad was saying. Grace nor Grant need a friend like Alyssa.
I also love when these movies (bc it's Lifetime) make the men suspicious or not that great, but also because it's Lifetime, the villain is a woman. I sort of suspected whodunit very early because you just pick up vibes in these movies. I wasn't surprised by the villain at all nor their motivation.
I am fine with her captor being released after serving his time. That did not bother me. However, trying to get us to believe that losing his daughter to foster care bc of XYZ caused him to kidnap and destroy lives...and get out of jail with a victim that treats him better than the father of her child was not acceptable. She was so comfortable with him yet thinks he could have kidnapped Emma?
It's a very basic Lifetime movie that's watchable for at least one viewing. Like I said above, the movie almost ruins itself with the early blunder of letting the little girl go off by herself given Alyssa's history and her PTSD, but I kept watching. I wanted little Emma to be ok, but I got tired of Alyssa. I like Jason-Shane and Jason Cook, but maybe JS should have been Emma's father. The movie should have had Emma's father more involved in trying to find her and he's never seen again after his one scene especially given that the movie makes it seem like Alyssa is the impediment to his relationship with his daughter.
The climax is a little bizarre with the movie making the villain seem more deranged than the original kidnapper. The movie gives Alyssa a better "relationship" and closure with her kidnapper than Emma's dad and that's just so odd to me. I guess there's supposed to be some Stockholm Syndrome aspects (Lifetime's interpretation), but she's a little too nice to the man who stole her from her family and traumatically changed her life and basically made this situation possible. It's so bizarre.
Something positive: Abduction Runs in the Family is a better and more clever title than this movie deserves.
Terrible acting
kymmmurphy13 December 2022
After at least 3 "abduction" fakes, when the daughter was actually abducted it was anti climactic and I thought, "oh hey, another dream, or another flash-forward". The mother is so paranoid that she turns her back on the daughter to get a better cell signal? Seriously? The mother leaves the scene of the abduction to go home and meet with the police? Really?
They picked the most annoying child to play the daughter, annoying voice, and looked nothing like the mother.
Every dialogue cliche was used... "Let us do our job" "I would never hurt you" "It's your call" Some of these LMN "movies" are getting really lame.
They picked the most annoying child to play the daughter, annoying voice, and looked nothing like the mother.
Every dialogue cliche was used... "Let us do our job" "I would never hurt you" "It's your call" Some of these LMN "movies" are getting really lame.
Couldn't buy this story
pumping_iron-12 August 2022
Warning: Spoilers
A man kidnaps a child because CPS took his away. That's ridiculous. CPS thought he couldn't take care of his biological child after her mother died. But he took very good care of the kidnapped child. Why couldn't he just keep pushing CPS to prove to them he could take care of his child. He was just in a bad emotional state after his wife's death. If he needed his daughter that badly, he'd gotten multiple jobs to prove his stability. He would not have stooped to kidnapping. Makes no sense to me. LMN keeps recycling Jessica Morris. With all the LMN movies she makes you'd think her acting would get better. It isn't.
Abduction Runs Amok
cdesantis-7295323 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
How insulting to families who have lost a child via abduction. I have never heard of a man abducting a child for any other reason than to sexually molest them and often kill them. This perp.'s wife dies and he loses his daughter
to CPS because he worked 3 jobs and left her alone. No one told him about babysitters, apparently. He abducts the protagonist and insists she use the name of his daughter. Miraculously, he is no longer working 3 jobs. He just wanted a daughter (for 7 years, no less!) Otherwise, he is a great guy and his former victim enlists his help because he knows the type of man who abducts a child!
Stopped watching.. don't know the ending.. don't care. Neither should you.
Stopped watching.. don't know the ending.. don't care. Neither should you.
Atonement
lavatch7 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The word atonement may be broken down into its roots: at - one - ment. The protagonist Alyssa Manning is in search being at one with a self that has split off at its core following a traumatic experience in which she was kidnapped. Now, as an adult, she must confront her demons when her own daughter Emma is kidnapped.
There was a quiet intensity to Jessica Morris' interpretation of Alyssa and an understated set of emotional choices for the character. It was also remarkable that there was a degree of empathy evoked in the character of the kidnapper Miles Simon. By the end of this ordeal, somebody needed to give Miles a great, big hug!
As far-fetched as the circumstances were surrounding the kidnapping of young Emma, the film moved along at a brisk pace in large part due to the intriguing characters, including Alyssa's cop friend Grace, her boyfriend Grant, and her editor Susan.
But it was primarily Alyssa's stalwart attempt to come to terms with her past that defined the major action of the film. In this regard, the filmmakers were wise to avoid extensive flashbacks and focus on the development of a strong central character, one who eventually becomes at one with her turbulent past.
There was a quiet intensity to Jessica Morris' interpretation of Alyssa and an understated set of emotional choices for the character. It was also remarkable that there was a degree of empathy evoked in the character of the kidnapper Miles Simon. By the end of this ordeal, somebody needed to give Miles a great, big hug!
As far-fetched as the circumstances were surrounding the kidnapping of young Emma, the film moved along at a brisk pace in large part due to the intriguing characters, including Alyssa's cop friend Grace, her boyfriend Grant, and her editor Susan.
But it was primarily Alyssa's stalwart attempt to come to terms with her past that defined the major action of the film. In this regard, the filmmakers were wise to avoid extensive flashbacks and focus on the development of a strong central character, one who eventually becomes at one with her turbulent past.
Anything Jessica Morris is in deserves watching!
hoops-5343616 February 2022
The movie and the plot were okay- nothing outstanding. However, Jessica Morris proves her versatility in every movie she's in. She demonstrated a range of emotions in this flick.
Movie rates a 6- but gets an 8 because of Jessica.
Would have been a 9 or 10 if she'd have found a reason to do a scene in a bikini!
Movie rates a 6- but gets an 8 because of Jessica.
Would have been a 9 or 10 if she'd have found a reason to do a scene in a bikini!
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