A Mother's Terror

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.