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The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story (2023)
A Painful retread of Believe Me....
Ok, I get that these are Lifetime movies and acting and writing are not always up to a quality standard. But Katie Douglas sleep walks through this retread of her very watchable movie Believe Me.
Believe Me was a fairly surprising movie to me. I was expecting another sub par kidnapping movie. But she made a pretty solid effort in that one.
If you have seen Believe Me, then you can of course draw some of the similarities that this movie has. She tries to remember small detail things so when she gets free she can give the police the information. This was a good thing with Believe Me. But with The Kara Robinson Story, we are unsure why she even bothered to take in all those details when she was able to escape in broad daylight and could easily determine where her kidnapper lived. There was no need for that info in this one. Speaking of escaping...sigh. Couldn't they have made it just a little harder for her? The guy literally secures her to the bed using simple spring loaded carabiners! She has handcuffs on. Yet they are attached to a carabiner and a not so stout rope. It was laughable. And she makes her way out of bed and the only thing holding the back door in place is a board?!?! All the time I am expecting her to be caught before she gets out of the house. But nope, she just opens the door and runs out, no worries.
The movie suffers from poor writing. Part of it wants to copy Believe Me. Part of it has no clue what it wants to be. The plot, if you want to call it that, is spotty at best. I am truly shocked this movie has a rating over 6.
Katie made Believe me back in 2018 when she played a 17 year old turning 18. Yet 5 years later when she makes Kara Robinson, she is supposed to be 15?? Yeah, I know she is petite and has a youthful face. But she is 25 here and it's difficult to see her as a 15 year old.
Her attitude in this one is a bit annoying. She seems snarky to those trying to protect her. When she is kidnapped and raped she tends to look like she is sleepwalking through it with little emotion.
Katie was likable and had a range of emotion in Believe Me. I cannot say the same for this one.
The movie is full of holes and I have to blame a lot of it on the writing and directing. Or lack of both.
I suppose I walked into this expecting too much. Hoping for an even better movie than Believe Me. But sadly it was the opposite.