SnoopyStyle It's 2002 Cleveland. Michelle Knight (Taryn Manning) is a struggling single mother. Her mother is unreliable. Social services is trying to take away her son. While walking to court to get him back, she is kidnapped by acquaintance Ariel Castro (Raymond Cruz). She is kept as a sex slave for 11 years during which he also kidnaps Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus. They finally escape in 2013.It's a Lifetime movie. The brutal true story is told in a straight forward manner. Taryn Manning makes this more compelling than simply the material. The brutality is kept at a certain level since it's a Lifetime movie. It's a harrowing story. A couple of scenes after the rescue are actually quite heart-breaking.

quincytheodore Cleveland Abduction is very identical to case documentary or event reenactment, and it's highly effective. It doesn't present too much glossy cinematography to make it as authentic as possible, though still with enough restriction for the delicate subject. Acting from Taryn Manning and Raymond Cruz, the captor and captive, are brazenly intimidating to highlight the gruesome struggle.It follows the event of actual kidnapping where a man, Ariel Castro (Raymond Cruz) abducts three women for eleven years. The movie depicts this horrendous act with superior acting and true to life visual. It occasionally looks devoid of color, grainy and dirty, while some of the outdoor scenery seems refreshing with cool ambiance. This presents the urban location in accurate perspective along with its darker shade.Much of its better moments are from the good performance by the actors. It has surprisingly tender and sorrowful moments, all of which look genuine. This is not a well-orchestrated crime, yet it's incredibly shocking that the real person can maintain the act for so long. Raymond Cruz is a good cast for the role, he's often sickeningly brutal and easily becomes the fitting antagonist.However, it does have some flaws. Several of the scenes try to depict the abuse, but they might feel heavy-handed in the approach. The camera is sometimes out of focus, it's probably intentional to induce realism, though it's a bit comfortable at times. The pace tends to screech a bit towards the second half despite the good intention of showing the aftermath or restrain for more gory moments. These don't take away the venerable effort to convey its message though.Keeping the story grounded, it manages to tell the abusive story and its ramification with equal poise and intimate outlook.

Theo Robertson The Cleveland abductions ? You remember that don't you ? No ? Let me refresh your memory . , A couple of years ago police in Cleveland Ohio raided a house belonging to one Ariel Castro who as it turned out kept three young women as captives . One of whom Michelle Knight had been held prisoner for eleven years . You remember it now and it'd be impossible to forget this true life horror story and this TVM tells of Michelle's ordeal Now to be fair having the story told through a television film via the Lifetime Channel is both a blessing and a curse . A blessing that we're not going to be subjected to extreme exploitation that's going to keep us awake for nights on end due to the disturbing subject material but at the same time a curse that the restrain of a TVM really doesn't do the story justice . In this medium it's a rather uneasy mix but doesn't stop an opening caption that "Contains distressing scenes . Viewer discretion advised" . The constant rapes and beatings of Michelle are thankfully left mainly to the imagination but at the same time you're left thinking that this isn't due to any cerebral reason except that you're not allowed to show that type of stuff on the channel . In other words the story is shaped by outside criteria that have got absolutely nothing to do with the story and everything to do with outside factors . Another irritant is that you never get to feel much in the way of Michelle's hopes of ever being rescued being dashed time and again which I'm sure must have constantly happened . None of this is helped by the feeling of time passing being conspicuous by its absence and much of this TVM feels like it has taken place in 90 minutes rather than the eleven years of Michelle's real time imprisonment . There's not enough foundations for the audience to emotionally invest enough in to Michelle's ordeal which is terrible but at the same time abstract which means despite the compelling subject matter the characters remain entirely distant

heidi_s-96221 First of all, I do not like shows of this nature and the happenings of what goes on with woman or men in nature. I do not believe these girls were giving much justice in this movie. Michael knights mother never looked for her, put up posters. If in fact someone seen this young lady in the Doller store talking to this man, and she did in fact wave to this no good of a mans neighbor before going in his house then this young lady should have been saved. The fact the the lady they show talking to the cop that she heard screams from houses nearby and then it stopped. Did the cop not check houses knowing that 2 girls were missing in the area. That part is so really, really sad. We will never know how these girls felt, never being in their situation. I believe cops could have put a end to this and Michaels mother could have also. You can not go back in time. It is still a shame that 10 years of these girls lives were taken. I do believe that her son will know who she is one day. Kids eventually know that they are adopted. I do not know, they just do. She has always said his name. You have to commend her for putting herself in the position to wait so that she does not disrupt his life. What he is probably 16 now. She will wait and it will be worth it. We all know that. She could have gotten him back because she did not sign papers to have him adopted. He will find out who she is and we will all wait with her. We will watch in years to come the reunion that the two of them encounter.