Pretty Good

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I want to start off my review by stating that the victims, Michelle Knight (Now Lily Rose Lee), Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus deserve all respect and dignity for the atrocities they went through.This film does not give them that, especially Amanda and Gina.We can disregard the bad taste in making a film about a horror. The point of such films should be about informing people of what happened and how such horror should be watched out for and how people can help in these situations. It shouldn't be about entertainment.The sin of this film is that it clearly is a message to entertain people and not on the truth.This film focuses on one of the victims, Michelle, and that is probably one of the worst decisions made. It almost ignores the other two which is beyond frustrating. Why were their stories not worth being told? Why did we only see their families grief through the eyes of Michelle? Worse, the grief was shown for the purpose of highlighting the fact that Michelle had no one looking for her. Instead of feeling pain for Gina and Amanda's families, we were supposed to feel sadness that Michelle did not have that. Important moments like when Amanda learns of her mother's death from a news story were told strictly through Michelle's eyes when it would have been better served to have been told from the grieving daughter.Michelle's story deserved to be told, but so did Amanda's and Gina'sAnother problem is because this is a film meant to tell strictly Michelle's story and also with the guise to entertain instead of inform, the filmmakers made the decision to twist the truth to pull focus onto Michelle. This causes problems because in many instances it makes the other two victims appear worse. They present both Amanda and Gina as entirely subservient to Ariel and completely under his thumb from the beginning, both too afraid to even entertain the idea of escaping while Michelle is always looking for ways to get out. When reading the book written by both Amanda and Gina it is clear that both of them tried to find ways of getting out, including a moment where Amanda considered stealing the very van they were all abducted in. By trying to prop up Michelle as the "strong one" they make the other two look meek and ignore the bravery of ALL THREE of them.But the example that bothers me the most is at the very end of the film. After the three of them are rescued it shows them all trying to move on. In a particularly tragic scene Gina informs Michelle she wants to stop talking to her for a while so she can move on. Its' sad because its supposed to highlight the fact that Michelle is alone again, no family, no son and now now help from the other two people she could share her story with.The problem is that this simply is NOT true. The fact is it was Michelle who needed to separate herself from Gina and Amanda and told them both this, even though they are still in contact to this day. Gina and Amanda see each other every week and are in constant contact and in fact wrote a book together. Michelle needed to separate herself from them in order to heal, since she was older and went through some atrocities they did not (such as being forced to miscarry 5 times and losing custody of her son) it is certainly understandable that she would need space from her two fellow captors in order to healFor the film to completely lie and try to paint Michelle as the one abandoned is a complete and utter disservice to Amanda and Gina. It is horrifying that they would decide to mute the voices of two of the victims. I know this film was based on Michelle's book, but that doesn't mean it was right to almost ignore the stories of Gina and Amanda. All three of them deserve more than this piece of crap.

Taryn Manning plays a tremendous part in this true story. While I understand many viewers frustration at the focus being mostly on Michelle's character, I believe that it is important to remember that the film is based mostly on Michelle's book which helped steer the story in that direction. Although difficult to watch at times due to the implied brutality, I was unable to take my eyes from the screen the entire movie. Depicts the story of these 3 young girls (and not forgetting the daughter) excellently while allowing an understanding as to why the girls were never able to escape. This would have been an 8 star review if not for the performance of Taryn Manning, which bumps it up to 9 stars.

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.

Everything seemed to be going wrong for our heroine, a high school dropout with a child, and an uncaring mother. It just seems that there is one misfortune after another and eventually the loss of her young son to the courts and her inability to get to the court on time forces her to take what will be the most memorable ride in her life.Bound and sadistically tortured by someone she trusted, this is basically a story of survival.Our demented man tries to start a family by kidnapping two other girls and impregnating one of them.The story is also poignant since once freedom is achieved, we see how our young unfortunate had to work her way back into life,after she had experienced rejection and no one missed her during her 10 years of captivity.A harrowing, tragic experience that altered the lives of its victims.