Lost Child of the Caribbean
After filing for divorce things between Kristen (Gabrielle Anwar - Mysterious Island) and her estranged husband, Quinn (Craig Sheffer - Cabin Pressure), have become tense as he still wants to save their marriage and wants more than just one weekend a month that he gets to spend with their young son. It is during one of those weekends in which Quinn takes his son sailing that there is an accident during a storm and both Quinn and their son are reported lost, presumed drowned after the boat sinks. 14 years later, and having remarried, Kristen is watching her friend's holiday video and spot a man and boy running a sight seeing business. Kristen is convinced the man is Quinn and the boy is her son leading to Quinn immediately heading off to the island to try and find out if the boy is her son, despite having no passport.
No wonder there is a terrorist issue in this world if people at customs let someone through with no passport having phoned their husband who vouches for them. It is one of the ideas in the movie "Long Lost Son" which for me really lets it down. But then this isn't a movie about realism but it is a story of a woman desperate to find the son who went missing, presumed to have died14 years earlier and no obstacle is going to get in her way. And so that is what we get in this made for TV movie, various obstacles as once Kristen makes it to the Caribbean island and meets the boy she is convinced is her son we not only have the danger of being spotted by her ex husband but there are also hurricanes whilst also the fact that her ex husband is respected on the island and is chummy with the police.
The trouble for me is that all of this makes "Long Lost Son" ridiculously convoluted yet not having the most complex of storylines; in fact it is pretty slim. Slim is also the issue when it comes to characters because none of them have anything close to resembling depth and so we have various people talking, saying uninteresting things which are not in the least bit important to the story because what is important is the convoluted collection of obstacles. Okay so there is also the emotion of Kristen maybe finding the son she thought was dead but that adds little to the movie.
What this all boils down to is that "Long Lost Son" didn't work for me for the simple reason it felt like someone came up with a story idea of a lost son then thought about some obstacles to prevent a mum finding him but didn't concern themselves too much with anything else.
