Since this movie is based on a true story, it is difficult to be hyper critical. I will say Alyson Hannigan's portrayal of Mary Stauffer was layered and well acted. Nice to see her step out of her comfort zone!

Meh. True stories that have an underlying criminal element to them such as this abduction of a mother and daughter can appear to be suspenseful merely based on the action(s) of the perpetrator(s). This is a TV Lifetime film that stars Alyson Hannigan (TV star of How I Met Your Mother) in the role of the real life abducted mother and school teacher Mary Stauffer. Personally, I don't know how a teacher/mother is supposed to act over her 53 day period of abduction with her young daughter held hostage with her so I can only provide my opinion on whether this film was believable or not.

Unfortunately even with the factual evidence of the sequence of true events well documented Alyson Hannigan's performance would have you believe that her abduction and continued rape, night after night was a ho hum event. Maybe because Lifetime is a cookie cutter process, with limited costs and time to write a script, select the actors, tape the film and bring it to the small screen, they deliberately have a formula that does not provide sufficient time, costs and cast to warrant any consideration for an Emmy (or two) performance(s).

I am glad I watched the film before reading the historical events just so that I kept an open mind. Now that I have seen this Lifetime TV film, and read the background info on the criminal, 29-year-old Ming Sen Shiue (played drably by Howie Lai) I can close the book for good. It's a drab time waster that I cannot recommend anyone watching.

I give it a so-so 5 out of 10 IMDB rating

True stories are better. This true life kidnapping and rape movie is different from the usual abduction movie in that a mother and daughter were taken together. Also the criminal is Asian American (convincingly acted by Howie Lai). She is subjected to confinement in a cupboard and raped repeatedly. All the details shown are fascinating. Alyson Hannigan mostly associated with American Pie is well suited to this role and acts well. She can do drama too. There is a strong faith element that helped Mary get through.

One of the better Lifetime movies. Make sure you watch the beyond the headlines after.