Dr. Abby Lord is a pediatrician. Her husband Robert sells boats. They have a 19-year-old daughter Maddy who is in college and somewhat rebellious, and a 14-year-old son Corey who loves computer games.
When Abby is kidnapped, the ransom is one million dollars. Robert will do anything to get his wife back, and that includes not telling the police--if he does, he has been told, Abby will die. Lester Denton can get Robert the money; Robert owns a business, the nice home his family lives in and even a vacation home, all of which he could lose if he can't pay back the money, but he is dealing with legitimate businesses, not loan sharks.
We never see the kidnapper's face, at least not early in the movie. But his accomplice and girlfriend is a sweet young woman named Sally who is either too dumb to realize that what she is doing is wrong, or too dependent on her boyfriend to question his actions. Abby behaves admirably on learning Sally feels sick; as a doctor, she must put the patient's health above other concerns.
Abby is released relatively quickly, but her nightmare is not over. Certain people are behaving suspiciously, and there are some genuinely scary moments. And then weird things start happening.
Robert must work hard to get enough money to repay his creditors, and this means dealing with Crawford Blake, who was once his partner and is now his competitor.
And Maddy has a new boyfriend named Nick, who is 25 years old. Abby and Robert have enough stress in their life without this.
This was pretty good for a TV-movie. It was entertaining to watch the family's situation get worse and worse.
I will say the actor playing the kidnapper did an impressive job, but I can't say who he is. Daniella Evangelista was so sweet and I hated that we didn't see more of her. And despite her rebellious nature, Katharine Isabelle's character was so easy to like. Plus she looked good topless, at least from the back. Shame on anyone for calling her fat (I can't remember now whether it was her brother or someone considering dating her).
Maria del Mar played a strong character, but one that could be pushed too far. She wasn't superwoman. Plus she was as pretty as the daughter, and they looked so much alike.
I was disturbed by Robert's anger toward his son in one scene. I suppose stress could be blamed, but it just seemed extreme.
The V-chip rating was TV-14, with a V, though it needed an S too. My theory is that the sexual content was PG, though the violence wasn't that bad. Perhaps the logic in the TV-14 rating was that this was too adult, for other reasons.
Overall, a good effort.
