Was I Really Kidnapped? (V) (2019) User Reviews

needs to push forward everything

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 10 April 2021]

Elle Whitland stumbles into a gas station. She has been missing for three days and claims to have escaped her kidnapper. Her reporter boyfriend Billy and sister Jen arrive at the hospital to find the police detectives questioning her. The police starts to suspect Billy. Elle has been doing hypnotherapy with Dr. Kilmeade for a past trauma.

The opening premise is pretty good. This really needs to start without any flashbacks to her captive story. The initial tension should arise from the audience questioning her story. They need to push up Dr. Kilmeade. Why not have him show up at the hospital and dismiss her kidnapping story to the police? Suspicion can fall on everyone and no one at the same time. On top of that, the acting is only functional and the filmmaking is lackluster. The first half really struggles for tension. As for the extensive police interrogations, I do like the one section where they show the same incident from both Jen and Billy. Otherwise, they are mostly too long and boring. That's part of the issue with the boring first half. The second half improves markedly but by that time, most viewers would have lost interest. I like the various red herrings and I like the whodunnit with the eventual reveal. The movie just needs to push everything forward to eliminate the boredom of the first half.

Could have been a hit.... But missed!

[paulwatson-42760 · 4/10 · 13 November 2020]

Better actors, better cinematography, a better director and more money may lift this movie into blockbuster status. Maybe there will be a remake? Until then... keep your expectations low if you watch this version.

I applied to the Guinness book of records for executing the longest yawn

[Ed-Shullivan · 4/10 · 9 November 2020]

What a boring film. A lady named Elle Whitland (Michelle Mylett) is involved and living with her boyfriend Billy Johnson (Jacob Blair) who wants to marry her after being in a year long relationship but Elle is reluctant at such an early stage in their relationship to say yes to Billy's marriage proposal.

Elle experienced a traumatic experience years earlier when her best friend was abducted in a van right in front of her whilst the two girls were walking home from school which led Elle to suffer from long term PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) and she remains under care by a psychiatrist named Dr. Kilmeade (Richard Nash).

It seems that every character in this rather boring made for TV film other than Elle's sister and the two detectives are suspects, and the film even allows for the suspicion based on the undecided multiple alternative movie titles "The Alleged Abduction" and/or "Was I Really Kidnapped?" that there was no abduction and the sequence of events outlined in all the characters flashbacks are in Elle's imagination. heck, even her Pharmacist who fills out her psychiatrists prescriptions is considered a suspect. This in my opinion is a lousy and amateur way to make a film evolve by simply outlining that every character included in this film could be the actual perpetrator.

By the time the mystery is solved I said to myself, "who cares how this crappy film ends" The acting is below par, the writing is amateurish, and the ending could not come soon enough. I give the film a less than stellar 4 out of 10 IMDB rating.

Good idea, very poor execution

[brunovanael · 2/10 · 14 February 2021]

Interesting idea, but poorly executed. Unconvincing acting, too much and uninteresting dialog. I was triggered enough to stay put to find out how it ends, but the only thing good about the ending is that the movie stopped.

Didn't like it very boring

[aliciagerlack · 1/10 · 10 April 2021]

This was a very dull movie it was so boring that I kept looking at the duration of the movie because it was so dull no action happened there was no action at all until the end of the movie do not recommend if you're into suspense and be bored out of your tree.

Hated the movie

[cherylann611 · 1/10 · 9 June 2020]

Long , drawn out, boring movie. I thought the acting was terrible. The only character I liked was the sister. Waste of tine

Highly Underrated

[carnstabba-55672 · 7/10 · 31 January 2020]

This was given just 2 stars in our UK TV guide. Totally unfair and whoever reviewed it was either on a bad day or just being plain mean. The only criticism if you can call it that is the very slow buildup. But isn't that what a good thriller should do? It's definitely worth watching just to see if you can work out 'Who done it' before the end. I didn't which is unusual for me

Typical TV Movie

[canuckfan-19116 · 2/10 · 21 June 2022]

Terrible acting, especially the lead actress. It feels like they are literally reading the script with monotone voices. I don't know why I expected more from Lifetime.

Tame

[bluemoonskye2002 · 5/10 · 31 May 2022]

The acting was good but the storyline lacked real substance. I can't believe the detectives on the case were so dumb & incompetent. In the real world they wouldn't be in those positions.

I had a hard time finding this title on IMDB. It's titled 'Gone' here, with an 'also known as', 'Was I really kidnapped?' But on the TV guide it's called 'the alleged abduction ', not even mentioned here!

It's not a bad movie to pass some time, but that's about it.

The Ultimatum: The Intersection of Carillon and Marier

[lavatch · 8/10 · 12 August 2020]

When Billy Johnson proposed marriage to Elizabeth ("Elle") Margaret Whitland, a beautiful ring was placed on her breakfast tray. While Elle enjoyed breakfast in bed, she wasn't thrilled about the marriage offer, which sounded to her like "an ultimatum." So, she told Billy "no." Then, Elle was kidnapped. Or, was she?

Despite the over-reliance on flashbacks that tell the story from the perspectives of different characters, the filmmakers built good tension in the recent traumatic experience of Elle. It becomes clear that she is not imagining her abduction, and the two veteran police detectives, Flores and Wells, struggle in piecing the puzzle together.

There is a good list of potential suspects, including Billy Johnson himself. An oily psychiatrist, Dr. Kilmeade, who dispenses prescriptions like candy, is another highly suspicious figure. There is also Ryan from the newspaper office where Billy works, who seems a little too eager to recommend Lake Como in Italy as a honeymoon spot to Billy and Elle at a time when he knows she is reluctant to commit to marriage. Then, there is the overly solicitous pharmacist, who take an interest in Elle that is a little too friendly.

Slowly, Elle's memory of the abduction returns, and the key detail that she recovers is the intersection of Carillon Street and Marier Avenue. It was in that neighborhood that she was taken and tortured, prior to being released. The only question is when the pervert will strike again.

The film did a good job in depicting the effects of PTSD, as Elle had suffered a traumatic experience in her youth when she witnessed an actual kidnapping. The theme of "perception versus reality" is explored as the protagonist wrestles with the question of "was I really kidnapped?"