I have been both 17 and the mother of birth and adopted children. I find this girl annoying and her mum a bit too much too at times, but she loves her as much as her own. At 17 really is incredibly selfish, narcissistic like a lot of us at that age, but so unaware of others feelings it's incredible. The way she falls into the criminals clutches is laughable. If she's so sophisticated to have sex straight away why is she immature? She says I don't owe these people anything, talking about her adoptive parents. MY GOD how about 17 years of love hard work, and provision. She is a spoiled brat who needs a good kick up the bottom to sort her out. Oh Blah blah there are starving kids in our countries, who get neglected and abused and she has it all, and is so "confused", when there are people all over the world who would kill to be in her shoes. GOD give me strength. Anyway that's a GOOD thing as the films well done and provokes emotions so it's done it's job, and well done beautifully filmed and thought provoking. I'm an artist so if you get a reaction you've done your job. I still want to slap her around the face and tell her to either grow up or go away.
11 Reviews
How Convenient
wes-connors7 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Somewhere around the Los Angeles area, blonde mother Tricia O'Kelley (as Shannon) screams for her apparently missing 17-year-old daughter. Soon, a white van dumps a blue bag near a dump Ms. O'Kelley is visiting. It appears to contain a dead body. "Somebody help me!" O'Kelley screams after unwrapping the plastic, but we do not see its contents...
Two days earlier, snotty Ayla Kell (as Candace "Candy" White) tells off her science teacher and walks out of class. She's been told about the genetic possibilities of eye color. This leads to Ms. Kell learning she's adopted. After telling off her mother, Kell decides to run away from home. She meets handsome blond Ben Gavin (as Tobias "Toby" Alton) at a convenience store. With his liquor, looks and muscles, Mr. Gavin is very convenient. In fact, most of the male cast members look like professional models. Gavin also agrees to help Kell find her real mother. All seems well, but Gavin has some sneaky-looking friends. "Inspired by True Events," this is an obvious story, moved along well by Doug Campbell and the Shadowland crew.
***** Missing at 17 (10/19/13) Doug Campbell ~ Ayla Kell, Tricia O'Kelley, Ben Gavin, Marin Hinkle
Two days earlier, snotty Ayla Kell (as Candace "Candy" White) tells off her science teacher and walks out of class. She's been told about the genetic possibilities of eye color. This leads to Ms. Kell learning she's adopted. After telling off her mother, Kell decides to run away from home. She meets handsome blond Ben Gavin (as Tobias "Toby" Alton) at a convenience store. With his liquor, looks and muscles, Mr. Gavin is very convenient. In fact, most of the male cast members look like professional models. Gavin also agrees to help Kell find her real mother. All seems well, but Gavin has some sneaky-looking friends. "Inspired by True Events," this is an obvious story, moved along well by Doug Campbell and the Shadowland crew.
***** Missing at 17 (10/19/13) Doug Campbell ~ Ayla Kell, Tricia O'Kelley, Ben Gavin, Marin Hinkle
why do they always get 23 year old actors to play 17 year olds??
johnjames4625 September 2019
I prefer actors to play parts close to their own age... don't they have any decent teenage actors who can play their own age? Every teenager seems to get played by an actor at least 5 or 6 years older than the part. ''Missing at 17'' was a reasonably good midday movie with a plausible story line.
Typical
haroot_azarian4 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Typical LMN movie! A rebellious ungrateful little brat finds out she's adopted! Storms out falls in with the wrong crowd, falls for a punkass criminal and at the end when rescued by her adoptive mom not even a simple thank you or I'm sorry!!! Oh and the pedophile got what he deserved in the end! P.s. I totally hated Candace!
WORTH WHILE....
toralyoshida20 August 2021
Geeky Randy's summary
Geeky Randy25 May 2014
Weight defines the performer, apparently, with Lifetime casting their boniest actress over 40 (O'Kelley) as a woman trying to save adopted daughter Kell (who couldn't be more stereotypical) from criminal Gavin (who's more an idiot-daredevil than a menace), and finds the girl's biological mother and brother (Hinkle and Alberti, respectively—both delivering more depth than any of the other principal characters) as unlikely allies. Frequently inexplicable: officer Pettis would never just give out an address just because someone asked for it; O'Kelley is such a hypocrite, that it's difficult to root for her; oh, and then there's the little kid Hopkins, who hasn't got a clue as to what's going on, but can still conveniently hack needed information by visiting one website. As if the story weren't lame enough, the movie fluffs itself by pointless subplots and other detours. Pretty close to being bottom-of-the-barrel, but is saved halfway decent acting and polished editing.
*½ (out of four)
*½ (out of four)
Even if there is nothing else to watch
read a book instead of waste time on this trash
elisaforsgren28 October 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Acting, if you call it that is even a stretch, was merely one big dress rehearsal. Unbelievable that someone actually approved a budget for this after school special meets cliché don't get in the car with a stranger message.
Then there is the cheesy background music forcing the viewer on an emotional ride throughout every single scene. Reality has been lost. Suddenly overnight a teenager hooks up with a random adult stranger and thinks she's hooked up with him.
Where is the backbone of this family? Why don't they call the car Candice is using as stolen? Missing person report filed? I mean, where is the responsibility for a high school teen? Again, reality missing along with the plot and sub-plot.
Save yourself the aggravation that I had to experience just say no, no, no to this film. Read a book or watch another film this is low-budget, no acting, and not worth the time invested.
Then there is the cheesy background music forcing the viewer on an emotional ride throughout every single scene. Reality has been lost. Suddenly overnight a teenager hooks up with a random adult stranger and thinks she's hooked up with him.
Where is the backbone of this family? Why don't they call the car Candice is using as stolen? Missing person report filed? I mean, where is the responsibility for a high school teen? Again, reality missing along with the plot and sub-plot.
Save yourself the aggravation that I had to experience just say no, no, no to this film. Read a book or watch another film this is low-budget, no acting, and not worth the time invested.
Missing At 17: Beyond Involvement ***1/2
edwagreen5 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Overly involved yet a compelling true story of a girl who discovers through her biology class that she is adopted and runs away only to fall into the hands of a guy who is wayward from the law.
In the midst of all this, she connects with her real mother and brother. The mother looks like she has been on a starvation diet. Her adopted mother is caring and yet very forceful. She divorced the girl's adopted father 2 years before. An airplane pilot, he seems to be extremely level-headed, also concerned as well as practical and realistic.
Ironically, all come together to rescue the girl at the end. Of course, there is gun play, but surprisingly no innocent person is hurt in all this mayhem.
In the midst of all this, she connects with her real mother and brother. The mother looks like she has been on a starvation diet. Her adopted mother is caring and yet very forceful. She divorced the girl's adopted father 2 years before. An airplane pilot, he seems to be extremely level-headed, also concerned as well as practical and realistic.
Ironically, all come together to rescue the girl at the end. Of course, there is gun play, but surprisingly no innocent person is hurt in all this mayhem.
Liked the extreme facial and emotional expressions!
NijazBaBs8 May 2019
This is very emotional and social movie. Focus is on relationships and feelings/emotions. Characters are very talkative, understanding, and honest. There is some action too. Talk is ordinary, but not boring like in many movies. There is no unreal/fake stuff. I think had this movie a bit more details and story, it could be rated 10 stars. Lesson is that we should take care of our friendships and relationships, and live in truth, just like with any other aspect of life. We must be honest, or expect disappointment and other bad things to happen.
Lifetime Movie based on actual events
lyndamack98075 January 2014
Missing at 17 was one of the best lifetime movies that I have watched in a long time. I love movies that keep you clued to the couch. And Missing at 17 did that. As we all know lifetime movies are usually based on actual events, but this movie got me very curious at the end. I had to record it so I could watch it again to try to understand it more. I give credit to all the actors and actresses in this movie. In the information summary of what happens when a mother searches desperately to find her missing daughter with the help of her biological mother. They work together to get her away from a criminal. I did not see him as a criminal. It was a very intense movie. It kept me clued to my couch until it was over.
The Brown-Eyed Mother
lavatch31 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Candace (Candy) White is a seventeen-year-old who learns a tough lesson in her biology class. She argues with her teacher that her brown eyes were the product of her two blue-eyed parents. The teacher stands firm on the topic of recessive genes, so Candy takes the argument home, where she learns from her blue-eyed mom Shannon that she was an adopted child. Thus begins Candy's quest for her brown-eyed birth mom.
While the feisty Candy was portrayed as a snot-nosed brat through most of the film, she becomes slightly more sympathetic after meeting her birth mother and understanding how deeply her adoptive mother loves her.
The best scene in the film was the meeting of Candy with her birth mother, Callie Tresser. After walking into the house "wasted" from a drinking binge, Callie sobers up enough to recount to Candy how she had spied on her on occasion as she was growing up. Callie conveys what a devoted mother Shannon was and how Callie would never have been able to give the child such a loving home. This was a tear-jerker of a scene that was especially well acted by the performers.
A subplot in which Candy forms an attraction to an unsavory chap named Tobias ("Toby") Alton leads her into the dangerous world of loan sharking, knives, guns, and robbery. Behind the scenes, Shannon is working to locate the whereabouts of her runaway daughter through a slick private detective named Mike Foster.
All roads converge in a climatic shoot-out with all hands arrive on deck: Candy, Toby, his wounded cousin Kennan, the thug that they robbed, Candy's newly discovered "brother" Vance Tresser, and Shannon, who just resigned from her job as a make-up artist in order to ensure her wayward daughter's safety.
While highly melodramatic, the emotional moments were heartfelt as the film's main theme of a mother's love for her daughter was given a double dosage--one with a mom with blue eyes and the other with brown.
While the feisty Candy was portrayed as a snot-nosed brat through most of the film, she becomes slightly more sympathetic after meeting her birth mother and understanding how deeply her adoptive mother loves her.
The best scene in the film was the meeting of Candy with her birth mother, Callie Tresser. After walking into the house "wasted" from a drinking binge, Callie sobers up enough to recount to Candy how she had spied on her on occasion as she was growing up. Callie conveys what a devoted mother Shannon was and how Callie would never have been able to give the child such a loving home. This was a tear-jerker of a scene that was especially well acted by the performers.
A subplot in which Candy forms an attraction to an unsavory chap named Tobias ("Toby") Alton leads her into the dangerous world of loan sharking, knives, guns, and robbery. Behind the scenes, Shannon is working to locate the whereabouts of her runaway daughter through a slick private detective named Mike Foster.
All roads converge in a climatic shoot-out with all hands arrive on deck: Candy, Toby, his wounded cousin Kennan, the thug that they robbed, Candy's newly discovered "brother" Vance Tresser, and Shannon, who just resigned from her job as a make-up artist in order to ensure her wayward daughter's safety.
While highly melodramatic, the emotional moments were heartfelt as the film's main theme of a mother's love for her daughter was given a double dosage--one with a mom with blue eyes and the other with brown.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
