Polo's Desperate in Mexico
Jayne (Teri Polo - Deadly Delusion) and her husband, Eduardo Valseca (Esai Morales - A Family in Crisis: The Elian Gonzales Story), have been married for many years and are still very much in love, living a wonderful life with their family on their 1,000 acre ranch, on the outskirts of a pretty Mexican village. But their idyllic life is rocked when returning from the school run Jayne and Eduardo are ambushed by masked men who bundle Eduardo in to a van and kidnap him. With the kidnappers demanding millions Jayne tries to not only raise the money but deal with things at home.
For those who are unaware "We Have Your Husband", which is also known as "Kidnapped: Desperate Hours", is based on a true story which is well documented in a piece on The Washington Post. Now I am not aware of the ins and outs of the true story but when you read the piece on The Washington Post, search "Kidnappers Stole More Than Money When They Took Eduardo Garcia Valseca" to find it, you will see that whilst the producers employed some artistic licence in telling the story they included many of the facts of the true story which makes "We Have Your Husband" feel somewhat authentic.
But, and yes there is always a but, true story movies about kidnappings are not that uncommon and as such there is a bit of when you have seen one the rest start to feel a little samey going on. As such "We Have Your Husband" mainly focuses on Jayne's plight as she tries to deal with the situation at home, keeping things running for the sake of the children but also desperately trying to get her husband back. But every now and then we get glimpses of what Eduardo was going through as he was kept caged. Despite being familiar it is still effective with nice attention to detail such as getting to see the initial bewilderment when a casually dressed federal officer shows up at the family home late at night with him explaining what will happen and why he appeared so discretely.
The thing about "We Have Your Husband" is that whilst it is based on a true story it is effectiveness actually comes elsewhere. Director Eric Bross has delivered a beautiful looking movie creating great contrast between the idyllic family life to the confusion of the kidnapping, but never breaking style when doing so. In fact Bross does a good job of making this true story movie work as a piece of entertainment and not just a recreation of what happened. And then there is Teri Polo and Esai Morales who not only looking stunning together but bring to life the individual dramas in the story with Teri Polo once again lifting a TV movie into something more than they usually are.
What this all boils down to is that "We Have Your Husband" works as an effective piece of entertainment whilst also doing a good job of delivering a true story about a kidnapping. Yes certain aspects of it feel familiar due to there being other TV movies about kidnappings but it does a good job of being memorable for the right reasons.
