Stockholm, Pennsylvania (2015) User Reviews

It's really slow, but I think that's how it should be

[AfricanBro · 7/10 · 6 August 2021]

I think it was a great movie but it lacked depth. They should have dived deeper into leia's character and her life when she was kidnapped. From the surface, all the kidnapper did wrong is kidnap her, otherwise he raised her quite alright, which is how Leia/Leanne seems to see it but they don't show us enough from her captured time to support that. We're thrown into the story halfway so it's hard to divulge fully into the characters and understand them. The movie seems to lean too much on our preceding knowledge of Stockholm syndrome.

Not the ending itself, but towards the end the story feels rushed, goes against the aura the movie gave out in the first half were they put effort to delicately build the story which I thought was special. The acting was astounding though, especially by Ronan (forgotten how to spell her first name tsss) very believable, feels like it was based on a true story. The plot line isn't the best, especially the twist at the end, a little off, but Ronan really made the best the best out of it.

Although it could have been, it's not exceptional, but I still think it's a good movie.

Lack of storytelling

[DogFilmCritic · 6/10 · 13 October 2015]

There are some interesting ideas in this movie sadly they were not implemented...

"Stockholm, Pennsylvania" a young woman kidnapped at 4 and kept in a basement for 18 years is reunited with the parents she doesn't remember,the child-kidnapping genre usually it focuses on the victim and the abductor and ends when the subject is found.This film had a more original spin and focused on the after math.I give the film points for originality, one usually does not see this part we only see the victim's arms wrapped around their parents and the credits start to roll. Leia is deeply attached to the mild-mannered end-of-days cultist (Jason Isaacs, in a very small role) who kidnapped her and cut her off from the outside world. But that enforced seclusion also means that at 22 she's facing the childhood challenges and embarrassments of learning how to operate in the adult world.all this sounds like a filmmaker's dream protect.

Sadly it takes a turn we put ourselves in the shoes of the mother although her intentions are good, she becomes extremely obsessive to get her daughter back to the point that her actions are not so different from the kidnapper,that's when the film loses me,it becomes unrealistic, it is an obsession to achieve her daughters love at all costs.

Strong performances from Saoirse Ronan and Cynthia Nixon, they manage to get the high points of the movie,I leaned more to Emma Donaghue's compelling 2010 novel Room, which developed far more bracing and psychologically nuanced drama out of a similar scenario of shut-ins readjusting to an unknown world.

Intense, uncomfortable, creepy and sad

[juneebuggy · 7/10 · 7 December 2015]

This was pretty good. Cynthia Nixon and Saoirse Ronan give strong, really raw performances here which is in part what keeps it so watchable. They play mother and daughter who have been separated for 18 years after 'Leanne' was kidnapped as a 4 year old and kept locked in a windowless basement. She is eventually reunited with her parents but of course doesn't remember them as well as having been psychologically damaged by her captor (the awesome Jason Isaacs).

I found the movie intense and absorbing as well as sad, uncomfortable and even creepy -especially the ending. It's a bit slow at times as character studies tend to be and I guess along the lines of 'Room' which has a similar scenario and plot of readjusting to an unknown world.

Leanne's story (or time with Ben her kidnapper) is brought to light slowly in ongoing flashbacks showing her at different ages in her room. Ben has of course been her world, her entire life for all of her formative years and she is not really capable of functioning without him, she is damaged. The story takes an interesting turn when her mother Cynthia locks her back in her childhood room and essentially trues to reprogram her. A true tragedy 11/22/15

A little disappointing.

[mellytiel · 7/10 · 25 October 2017]

**SPOILERS ahead... ** This movie was well done, but not as captivating as I'd hoped it would be. The film mostly focused on Saoirse Ronan and Cynthia Nixon after the girl had been returned "home" to her family. The scenes featuring Jason Isaacs were, by far, the most interesting, but the movie showed very little of the girl's life before she returned "home." I would have liked to have seen more of life in the basement, vs life afterward, as the concept was interesting an Isaacs was brilliant, as he always is. The movie was very sad, but not for the reasons one would imagine. The mother was a complete monster and it was difficult to watch the mother daughter scenes as the movie progressed.

disappointing

[filzananas · 8 June 2017]

expectation is really a trap. you either meet it, exceed it, or get something far lower than it. well, I had expectation on this movie. first, because Saoirse Ronan is one of my favorite actresses. I watched her in "The Lovely Bones" and after that movie, I always see her as someone who's mysterious. second, I watched "Room" before this, and I heard this movie has similar plot with it, so I tried. I liked Room, good enough for me. so I thought maybe this time it'll be even better.

but, what a shame. this movie couldn't meet my expectation. nice story, but poor way of presenting it. I was anticipating "something" to happen the entire movie but a few minutes left before it ended, nothing happened. and I was sad because I didn't get whatever it was I was hoping to get.

the whole time, it felt like the movie didn't go anywhere. it made me questioning, what was actually the story here? Leia (or Leanne)'s life when she was with Ben? or her recovery? she didn't recover or anything, yet there was also nothing clear about her life when she was with Ben. only a few cuts, but still couldn't depict what actually happened in the "basement". I couldn't even grasp what was happening between her and her biological mom. it was like the movie was actually longer than it is now, but they cut it into cuts for whatever reason it is.

not gonna recommend this to people, but I'd give 4 out of 10 for at least captivating me with the fresh story-line.

Exchanges one prison for another!!

[loueymc · 7/10 · 22 August 2015]

This movie is very well acted by all of the cast. It was interesting to see how people can cope in the aftermath of someone's child being abducted, then many years later having them return and how they deal with this. Saoirse Ronan and Cynthia Nixon both have very strong parts, one is dealing with having to leave the only 'home' that she has known, having being brought up with a man who has brainwashed her with lies from a very young age, therefore knows no other truth, but also shows a caring side to her-therefore she develops a strong connection to her kidnapper, so feels as though she has been torn away from the only life she has ever known, even if it was all lies given by someone unstable. She then is taken back to her parents, who she does not know and clearly feels uncomfortable around them, this understandably is very difficult for all three of them. However, I must object to how the Mother deals with the situation completely, rather than giving her time that she obviously needs to form a connection with her parents at her own pace, her Mother basically just does the same thing the kidnapper did and tries to force a connection on her. And all due to the fact that not only does she not have the patience to allow nature to take it's course, behave selfless and be capable of putting her Daughter's feelings first, be understanding to her feelings and needs...but she also teaches her that 'love' means to lock someone you care about in a room, giving food and water on a schedule, ordering them to do things without a choice, keeping her locked away from any other people, tying a rope around her arm so she does not try to run away, therefore establishing no trust whatsoever and ultimately forcing her to create her own little escape. As difficult a situation something like this would be, no Mother should do any of those things and certainly not one who knows that she has already had that done to them. I do recommend giving this movie a watch, as they all played very well in it

If only there could be another way.

[mikemichaud · 7/10 · 30 March 2016]

Pros: The movie was well captivated, it kept you in wanting to know what was gonna happen next. At times your feeling for all the characters and at the same time trying to find which to connect with. It's realistic and genuine thanks to the actors performances.

Cons: I honestly think with time the film started being a one track plot and did not account for all the layers it was producing at the beginning. Some elements were lost when the mother ends up being worse than her captor which I believe wouldn't happen as such unless the mother was already a messed up person which could be true adding to a realistic situation. The doctor wasn't concerned as much as one would be in real life unless again to add some realism they ended up with a doctor who just wants to put in their hours and go home with that 9 to 5 attitude.

In all: my cons were along the lines of critique personally... where there were nuances of dislike I easily found a way to ignore it or justify it in order to follow the story, the ending was intense and could not be truly felt by only watching that part, the whole build up to that point makes for one of the best endings I've seen in a film, a television film at that... because of that ending it was awesome.

Did I correctly interpret the ending to mean.....

[deedrala · 5/10 · 12 May 2020]

.....that the kidnap victim becomes a kidnapper herself?? So after she sneaks out to leave her house for good, she ends up in a park where she sees an unattended child and decides to kidnap her to make the child her own? She had just 'ran away' from home without a dime to her name, no drivers license/ID card, no job or place to live, yet she's planning to kidnap a child to keep as her own from thereon out?? Not to mention the fact that she knew that her own kidnapping was wrong and punishable by law, but now she wants to become a kidnapper and take a child away from her parents, as she had been herself at the same age??

If so, that proves that she was either mentally unbalanced all along, due to her own years in captivity, or she became unhinged after being rescued and returned to her true home, most likely due to the actions of her misguided mother and her father moving out, or both. Either way, it was a bizarre cliffhanger-ending that no one could've predicted or been prepared for.

Before the absurd ending, the movie was a believable study about a kidnap victim coming home after years in captivity - being her formative, developing years to boot, and how she and her parents handled it. I liked the stark realism of the no-flash, non-Hollywoodized scenes: little to no background music, washed-out colors, and realistic silent awkward pauses throughout, instead of snappy comebacks and rapid responses which so many movies consist of and not how humans actually speak.

The abstract left turn of the mother taking the desperate, forcible approach to get her daughter back in every way - not only physically but emotionally too - was not easy to watch at the same time it was almost understandable. Also understandable but hard to watch was the girl being so torn between missing her captor and wanting the life she had with him back again, and resuming the life with her parents in her actual home that she had no interest or invested emotion in whatsoever.

The acting and dialogue were exceptional, the story was realistic and compelling, but the last two minutes of the movie ruined all that to the point that I could only manage to give it 5 out of 10.

**

[edwagreen · 4/10 · 14 October 2016]

An absolutely brooding piece where a girl is returned home 17 years after her abduction.

It's as if there is a brick wall standing between the girl and anyone she deals with. Hesitant but universally religious, she has this wall around here when she speaks and it appears that she is either in isolation or totally spaced out. Kept in a basement, she still harbors feelings for the man who abducted her and even goes so far to visit him in jail.

Saiorise Ronan and Cynthia Nixon are both excellent as daughter and mother, respectively.

The father is a more upbeat type and is much more optimistic than the Nixon character.

You can actually feel the tension in the air, but you would want the film to break out more, possibly with other characters.

Riveting, Deliberate, Uncomfortable Must-See

[johnnyhightest · 9/10 · 14 May 2015]

Leanne/Leia (Saoirse Ronan) is a young woman who has had two crimes committed against her: she was stolen from her family, and she was robbed of a soul. She was kidnapped as a young child and confined to a windowless room by a kind but deranged stranger (Jason Isaacs) who raised her on lies and subtle influences to make her believe he was her only hope in life (hence the title "Stockholm" Pennsylvania). For obvious reasons, he intended to limit her understanding of the outside world and subsequently rendered her incapable of handling life beyond his walls.

Then it happens that Leia is freed and returned to her biological parents. It should be a happy, joyful reunion; unfortunately, it is anything but.

I'm a huge fan of Saoirse Ronan. She thrilled me in Hanna and ripped my guts out in the Lovely Bones. In this movie she has to play it down, as her character is emotionally stunted from captivity and psychically overwhelmed by the real world. She does a wonderful job as the detached escapee, conveying a wide range of emotions just with those big blue eyes and also with her control of subtle facial expressions.

Cynthia Nixon is also outstanding as the mother, who not only has to accept her own daughter's alienation of affection but also the horrible reality that Leia cannot accept her new situation. She and her flummoxed husband (David Warshofsky) struggle to rekindle the warmth and congeniality of a familial bond that has never really had a chance to exist, while battling with issues that no parent would ever want to have.

Strong praise for writer/director Nikole Beckwith for composing a riveting (if at times deliberately slow-paced) depiction of a true tragedy. Her scenes are at times difficult to endure, but the story is excellent.

deadening

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 13 July 2017]

Leia (Saoirse Ronan) was abducted by stranger Benjamin McKay (Jason Isaacs) at the age of four. She lived in the basement believing the world had ended. After 17 years of isolation, she is reunited with her birth parents (Cynthia Nixon, David Warshofsky). She struggles to acclimate to them who are essentially strangers and even her real name Leanne. Her mother can't leave her by herself and is desperate to connect to her. The marriage is falling apart. Dr. Andrews (Rosalind Chao) is Leia's therapist.

Director Nikole Beckwith strips away any flash or music. The colors are washed out. It is deliberately quiet at times. It leaves the movie feeling dead for the first half. Saoirse is able to maintain interest by her sheer presence. Leia takes a turn around the midpoint. It's a big risk and it becomes bursts of overwrought awkwardness. She needs a connection outside of the situation. The obvious comparison is Room which is more cinematic and has more "life". This is trying to walk down the same path but not as scenic. The two women produce a compelling battle but I'm not sure if it's worthwhile.

Great acting but ya lost me

[mariaqueen-79012 · 5/10 · 5 February 2019]

Great acting but ya lost me. Not enough information was giving about the kidnapper and so we are kind of just thrown into the story. The mother had me hella confused and I don't know what was going through her mind towards the end. THE ENDING IS STUPID!!!!! Like what the hell was the writer trying to suggest. Great acting but ya lost me. I only watched it to support my girl Saoirse Ronan. 5/10; would be lower if the acting was bad.

Welded

[lavatch · 5/10 · 17 February 2021]

While there was an earnest attempt on the part of the filmmakers to depict the psychological mindset of the Stockholm syndrome in a child held captive in a kidnapper's basement for years, this disturbing film raised too many questions about the plausibility of the situations depicted.

As an infant, Leanne Dargen was kidnapped in a local park by Ben McKay, who raised the child on his own. She was renamed "Leia," and the kidnapper drilled it into the child that he had "rescued" her. For years she was confined in isolation in a basement. When she finally was saved by the authorities years later, she completely identified with her captor. In short, Leia was welded to Ben.

When the young woman is returned to the custody of her birth parents, it is not surprising that the twenty-two-year-old finds it difficult to adapt. She recognizes that Ben never allowed her to do anything on her own, and she was inculcated with an apocalyptic vision leading her to believe that the old world had ended and places like Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon no longer exist.

In a traumatized, zombie-like state, Leanne should have been placed in an intensive recovery program. In the film, it made no sense that she apparently was only assigned weekly therapy sessions with the psychiatrist, Dr. Dana Andrews. It was even more implausible that with such a publicized case, the prison administration where Ben McKay was being held would permit a personal visitation with Leanne!

The major dramatic choice made by the filmmakers was in the actions of Leanne's mother Marcy to adopt the same brutal conditioning tactics as the kidnapper, locking Leanne in her room and regimenting her life like a prisoner. Marcy should have taken her daughter on trips to Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon. From Leanne's perspective, Ben was simply replaced by Marcy as her overlord.

In one of the most ghoulish moments of the film, it is revealed that allotments of water are given her daughter at specified times of the day. While Marcy had apparently read some books on the Stockholm syndrome, the books certainly would not have promoted the forced, abusive treatment of such a fragile psyche as Leanne's.

Despite the excellent performances, "Stockholm, Pennsylvania" was never credible as a case study in which the original treatment of Leanne by the kidnapper was made to seem more humane than that of the birth mother. The 5-star rating above is a generous one.

Cynthia Nixon- sublime & thoughts

[ru_thaker · 9/10 · 20 July 2016]

I just watched this. I thought Cynthia Nixon was sublime. Her acting was truly captivating and engaging, so talented, I would love to see her in more roles so if anyone can suggest I would be grateful. I feel, dare I say (controversially) Sex & the City was beneath her really after watching this and if that is what she is mostly associated with.

It would've been nice if more detail was given behind the kidnapping. I appreciate the subtlety in a way however. It seems audiences were lost. It would've been nice if there was more insight into Leah's ordeal/experience.

Good film, enjoyed.

What???? I want the time back I took to watch this

[brokeasajoke · 1/10 · 12 February 2023]

The ending???? Come on!!!

It was ridiculously slow moving, and there was no character build up to anyone. I felt nothing for any of the characters -everything was flatlined. I was hoping towards the end there would be a little action or a nice wrap up and there was absolutely nothing. The ending offers nothing and leave you hanging the ending, which is the beginning didn't tell you anything at all. There was no background as to her situation from the time she was kidnapped until she was found so many details were missing that could've made things a lot better. The ridiculous ending again was a complete joke.

Slow, chilling, and upsetting.

[hyltonstark · 8/10 · 17 August 2016]

Great movie. Cynthia Nixon was outstanding as a mother who has become unbalanced since her daughter was kidnapped from a park some 15-20 years ago. Ronan was also very good as the emotionally blank girl who has been rescued and returned to her family. The mother, who lacks insight into her daughter's problems, tries desperately to reinstall the bond between them, but ironically, only reinforces the distance between them. These agonizing attempts at therapy also parallel the professional help that the young girl receives, in the sense that both therapies fail to bring the empathy and insight required to heal. This is a compelling movie. Only watch if you love slow, but powerful, drama.

I only saw half the story but...

[mmunier · 21 March 2018]

Correct, I turned the TV on and there was that young woman with an older one who was passing the food through a small space at the bottom of a doors like half a cat entrance! Then I followed that strange relationship between mother and daughter. To me without previous information it looked rather terrible. I could not work out why this person who'd been in a very long captivity with someone else would then be almost in the same predicament after being reunited with her own mother. I'm not sure if I am spoiling anything yet will say i did. I did like what I saw and hope I'll get a chance to see the whole drama one day.