Reading the stories about the abduction, torture, and daily r*** of Mary Stauffer and her daughter Beth would prepare you for a terrifying, gut-wrenching film about their horrific 7 weeks spent in a closet guarded by the psychopath Ming Sen Shiue. However, none of the characters seemed to be particularly interested in the matter. Mary looked only mildly uncomfortable at her worst, her kidnapper (Ming) was painted to be some sort of relatable guy - even going so far as to give him a tragic backstory, sad conversations with Mary, showing him offering kind gifts to the girls. Even while the kidnapping took place neither of them (including the 8 year old little girl) shed a tear. Ming looked only mildly annoyed when he was arrested for kidnapping, r***, and murder. Her husband looked disinterested throughout the entire movie (bad acting?) Her husband's sister smiled when his kidnapped daughter called them - wouldn't any sane person be petrified that the girl was still stuck with some deranged murderer? But wait... you wouldn't know about the murder. The movie waits until the very end to mention that he killed a little boy whilst abducting the girls. Maybe so the viewer wouldn't lose their pity for this "lonely man who just wanted a family"?
The redeeming factors of this movie entirely lies in the quality. It is cinematic, with gorgeous shots and an appropriate soundtrack. The symbolic replacement of the daily r*** (which Ming recorded in real life) with filmed conversations between the two was creative and somewhat appreciated (I would have skipped the scenes had they actually involved r***) - but it detracted from the monster this man truly is. It felt like we were supposed to feel bad for him, in some twisted way. Were he not a real person who actually did these things and worse, maybe I could see this choice. But he does not deserve to be painted as less of a psychotic loser than he really was. This is the same man that not only attacked Mary in court with a knife during his trial, but also offered another inmate 50,000$ to kill both her and her daughter before they could testify. He had no humanity, and you're not fooling anybody by giving him some sad lines and a love for gift giving. If you can't tell the true story, you should have just come up with a work of fiction because this was not remotely representative of what happened to those poor girls.
The redeeming factors of this movie entirely lies in the quality. It is cinematic, with gorgeous shots and an appropriate soundtrack. The symbolic replacement of the daily r*** (which Ming recorded in real life) with filmed conversations between the two was creative and somewhat appreciated (I would have skipped the scenes had they actually involved r***) - but it detracted from the monster this man truly is. It felt like we were supposed to feel bad for him, in some twisted way. Were he not a real person who actually did these things and worse, maybe I could see this choice. But he does not deserve to be painted as less of a psychotic loser than he really was. This is the same man that not only attacked Mary in court with a knife during his trial, but also offered another inmate 50,000$ to kill both her and her daughter before they could testify. He had no humanity, and you're not fooling anybody by giving him some sad lines and a love for gift giving. If you can't tell the true story, you should have just come up with a work of fiction because this was not remotely representative of what happened to those poor girls.