Abduction of Innocence (1996) Katie Wright, Lucie Arnaz, Lochlyn Munro, Dean Paraskevopoulos, Dirk Benedict Movie Review

Abduction of Innocence (1996)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Lochlyn Munro in Abduction of Innocence (1996)

Innocence Not Lost

Clare (Katie Wright) doesn't always see eye to eye with her father Robert (Dirk Benedict) because as a business man he is more concerned with her doing well at school than enjoying being a teenager. But when she goes to a party she wasn't meant to and doesn't return home her mum and father both start to worry. It is then that they receive a call demanding ransom for her safe return which Robert pays and eventually the police find Clare unconscious in the woods. But when the police start to question Clare they become suspicious and when they catch her kidnappers, Eddie Spencer (Lochlyn Munro) and Buckle (Dean Paraskevopoulos) they say it was all Clare's idea.

Was she or was she not the mastermind behind her own abduction? That is the question posed to the audience in "Abduction of Innocence" but the more pertinent question is do you really care? Now I like the idea in the movie, that element of doubt which pushes for the audience to ponder whether Clare is as innocence as she says she is, is interesting although not that original and is in fact based on a true story. But it is an idea which serves up possibilities which stretch beyond the basic premise and we even wonder whether the wealthy Robert might have been involved himself as he has a strange manner about him.

The trouble is that whilst "Abduction of Innocence" has so much potential it doesn't do a decent enough job of drawing you in to the unfolding story and that is through the character. Every character from Clare to kidnapper Eddie, her one time boyfriend of sorts, they are all anonymous and so they don't cause you to connect with them and it needs that for the story to come to life. It also needs it to make the character connections feel real rather than just actors doing what they do which is certainly the case of Dirk Benedict who delivers a typical performance.

What this all boils down to is that "Abduction of Innocence" is one of those movies almost over flowing with potential but none of it realised. Instead what this made for TV movie ends up is an okay distraction which through out watching it all you can think is how much better it could have been.


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