Do You Know Me? (2009 TV Movie) User Reviews

Blood is not always thicker than water

[Clarinerd0102 · 4/10 · 17 May 2009]

Well, there was really only one redeeming factor to this movie and that was seeing Twilight's Victoria, Rachelle Lafevre, in a starring role. She did a fabulous job portraying a girl who comes to the realization that her entire existence has been a lie and then is thrown into a spiral of crazy events. Rachelle still shone, despite the lack of reality and massive plot holes in this movie.

The movie pretty much gets going right from the get-go. Rachelle's character Elsa/Sophie is getting drunk with her boyfriend and friend, when her friend notices a milk carton ad of a missing child who looks just like Elsa. As a drunken prank, they call the number on the ad. And from there, things just get plain weird.

Basically, this was like that old movie, starring Kellie Martin (The Face on the Milk Carton), on steroids. With the exception of Rachelle and maybe one or two others, the acting wasn't all that great and the storyline was pretty unbelievable (not in a good way) and hard to follow. Jeremy London, who I normally enjoy seeing in movies, gave a very disappointing performance. The movie jumps from scene to scene with minimal explanation of the events and ends with a supposed twist that I found to be fairly predictable. Overall, 4 out of 10 and that may be generous. Come on Lifetime, you've done better than that!

Do You Know Me? Can You Believe A Good Kidnapping? **

[edwagreen · 4/10 · 20 April 2010]

Unusual film dealing with a college graduate seeing a milk carton of a missing young lady that looks like her as a young girl.

This leads to an unbelievable story and an odyssey that takes the girl into a living hell while she discovers who she really is.

The idea of using children in drug smuggling would be most unappealing to everyone. Certain characters, such as her real father, a drug kingpin turned political assistant, is under stated at best and at times is not clear.

At the end, when we discover that she was "lucky" to be kidnapped by her kidnappers is a little too hard to fathom and the brother who was given up by his own father and raped in a Mexican jail is not to our liking either.

Confusing

[monica_maclean · 6/10 · 28 December 2021]

Things were straightforward up until the boyfriend was killed. Then I have no idea as to what was happening.

From what I did gather, Elsa the main character who saw her picture on a milk carton, was somehow rescued as a child from somewhere. Her real father was an ex criminal turned politician. No idea who the people who raised her were or how they were relevant to the film or why so many people kept abducting her.

Also who placed the milk carton advert in the first place, no idea as no one seemed to be looking for her. Her real mother (I think) was a crazy crack head, so couldn't have been her. Her real father didn't want her around.

This Should Have Been a Decent Thriller, but...

[kmkraft · 2/10 · 28 May 2021]

The premise is great and shows promise. That alone drew me to this film. The acting wasn't great, that was clear at the outset. But I held out hope. This was a high concept with a lot of potential. What resulted, however, was a poorly-executed, very weak, convoluted, misguided effort that doesn't justify its premise. I was really surprised at how bad this ended up being--so bad that I had to review it, which I don't normally do. So bad that I want to research the filmmakers to find out how this happened. There's just so much so wrong about this production.

Not good

[lenoreruth · 2/10 · 24 May 2022]

The writing and directing is so subpar. It is like they've never met humans before and don't know how they really act in every day situations. I know both Rachelle Lafevre and Jeremy London are decent actors so I don't blame this film failure on the acting abilities.

Great premise, terrible follow through

[juneebuggy · 3/10 · 29 January 2015]

Well, this was... not so good. The story premise itself was intriguing -a college girl discovers via a missing child picture on the back of a milk carton that she is in fact 'that' missing child and her parents are imposters who have been lying to her, her entire life.

Unfortunately the follow through here was pretty terrible; As Rachelle Lefevre as 'Ellie' starts asking questions, calls the 1-800 # attached to her photo and triggers the bad guys. The story then becomes jumpy and filled with massive plot holes. The acting was bad, the dialogue terrible and the budget low, which didn't help matters.

Rachelle Lefevre (of Twilight fame) was probably the best part of this, she did a good job in a terrible movie -except for her running skills, she struggled there and unlucky for her as she spends most of this movie on the run from assorted bad guys and crazy events as she tries to find the truth about who she is. Jeremy London plays one of the baddies and was just terrible.

In regards to Rachelle's (lack of) running skills, this was obviously made before she leaned how to do her cool action hero vampire moves in Twilight. Anyways it's Lifetime, what are you gunna do? 08.13

Could have been better

[samaraaguti · 4/10 · 2 July 2023]

The first few minutes of the movie were good, and I thought it was going to be a great movie, until the boyfriend got stabbed and died. The plot after that was very predictable. Innocent person picks up the murder weapon and leaves finger prints all over it, does not call the police immediately, runs out waving bloody hands, the father gets shot and the mother runs to him without thinking about the possibility of another shot being fired, the list is endless. It had the potential of being a good movie in the beginning. Generally, the acting was not that good but I watched it until the end, anyway.

sucked

[HandsomeBen · 2/10 · 11 January 2021]

Starts off great. A daughter has issues with her dad, and hates being home. During a drunken night with her friend and boyfriend they come across a milk carton with a picture that looks like her. Like I said it starts off great, good acting, the lead does a good job, the direction and pacing is suspenseful. Everything progresses very quickly within the first 30 minutes, and I'm wondering where it could possibly go. Unfortunately the longer the movie goes the stupider it gets. It's convoluted and ridiculous. What the heck were they thinking. It turns into FBI secret service action cheesy nonsense, and it becomes a cheap version of ''taker''. Although I will say the lead actress looks much better with black straight hair. This was such a waste cause they had such a great thing going.

Ok but got confused

[ryaincharlton · 7/10 · 17 February 2021]

So I feel she should of went to the cop's and that the so called dea guy was up to something I felt like she didn't fight back much at all. She should of handled this better but it was an okay movie just kinda don't like lifetime movies that make the woman look stupid .

All in the Family

[lavatch · 3/10 · 21 June 2023]

There was an intriguing premise about the circumstances of Elsa Carter discovering her true identity as Sophie Marsaretti. But the action and events were so sprawling and underdeveloped that the film lost its moorings in credible situations.

Early in the film, Elsa, who is now an adult and recent college graduate, does not even have a birth certificate. When she makes inquiry to her father, he shows her a document but refuses to give it to her. It made no sense that whatever her background, the father would not hand over the certificate.

The pattern of preposterous events continued throughout the film. Elsa is in San Diego, then suddenly appears in Gilroy where she meets her birth mother in a trailer park. How did she instantly get from San Diego to Gilroy? Her father Joe, a powerful politico in San Francisco, first sends his "daughter" packing, then changes his mind and shows up out of nowhere attempting to rescue her.

The strangest relationship of all is that of Elsa with her "brother," who at one point kisses her on the lips! Ick!

While the film was disappointing on all levels, it merits three stars for the exuberant performance of the actress playing Elsa/Sophie. She was a dynamo, constantly in motion, and she had a relentless motivation to salvage a rare commodity among the depraved individuals in this film: family.

Decent Lifetime Movie.

[jhmoondance · 7/10 · 23 December 2021]

Well......this was definitely an afternoon daytime made for TV lifetime movie but it was good. The suspense came in the last 15mins with a slight twist. The story was average n the plot a little thin.

The acting was as expected from a made for TV movie n the characters were too, just average.

There was a little action at the end.

The ending was predictable n cheesy.

I recommend this movie if you like drama with a little suspense.

Average

[maruthivardhan · 5/10 · 29 March 2021]

It is very good in the beginning but later the story goes in a predictable way.

Ridiculously convoluted crime thriller in the Great Northwest with Rachelle LeFevre

[Wuchakk · 4/10 · 17 February 2024]

Some college friends in Seattle think one of them (LeFevre) resembles the image of a girl on a milk carton, so she calls the hotline and starts to suspect that her 'parents' have been lying to her all her life. Jeremy London is on hand as a DEA agent.

"Do You Know Me?" (2009) starts out with promise, but becomes so contrived and complicated, it's eye-rolling. The locations are good, there's a lot of chase action, and Rachelle is an attractive protagonist (who wears the same purple pants for practically the entire runtime). Otherwise, this is a letdown due to laughable scriptwriting.

The film runs 1 hour, 29 minutes, and was shot in Vancouver and Surrey, which is across the Fraser River; establishing shots were done in nearby White Rock, as well as San Francisco.

GRADE: C-/D+