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Lifetime Review: 'Stolen in Plain Sight'

A slow but well-told mystery can be found in this Lifetime drama about a missing child and a mysterious small town.

By Trevor WellsPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Melissa Landry (Gracie Gillam) is a mother desperate for a fresh start. Having finally had enough of her husband Dylan's (Jordan Salloum) abuse, Melissa escapes with her young son Ryan and returns to her hometown of Mouton Parish, Louisiana. Moving into her family's old cabin, Melissa is hopeful it's the perfect place to move on from her troubled past and make a new life for herself and Ryan. But while out at the park, Melissa's new start takes a horrifying turn when Ryan suddenly goes missing.

While the police are initially unhelpful, Melissa finds support and help in her sister Theresa (Betsy Holt) and Mouton Parish local Zach (Kyle Clements). While she's convinced Dylan has kidnapped their son, Melissa soon begins to realize that there may be a more alarming answer to her son's disappearance. To rescue her son, Melissa will have to bring her hometown's darkest secrets to the light. But in a town where no one is trustworthy, can Melissa find Ryan in time and escape with her life?

Writer/director Jessica Janos is a relatively fresh face to the Lifetime circuit. Her only other contributions to Lifetime are 2016's Seduced and 2019's Suburban Swingers Club. For her junior project, Janos presents this child abduction drama with a cast full of similarly new-to-Lifetime faces. In fact, for some cast members, this was their first Lifetime movie. But for all the new faces working on this movie, Stolen in Plain Sight comes together to be a solid mystery. It's not a perfect mystery or a perfect movie as a whole, but for what Janos and company accomplish, the film makes for an engaging and at times intense watch.

A good deal of credit goes out to Janos and Stolen in Plain Sight's cinematographer Matt S. Bell. The movie's directing and camerawork gives it a darkly stylistic aesthetic, matching the script's eerie story about the disturbing secrets of an outwardly quaint small town. As the movie goes on, scenes are frequently shot in darkened settings, reflecting the increasingly shocking revelations that Melissa unearths. There's also the occasional use of frenetic and off-kilter camera angles that accompanies Melissa's growing desperation to find her son. The script builds on that atmosphere with the way the mystery of Ryan's disappearance unfolds, with just about everyone Melissa meets in Mouton Parish giving off an untrustworthy air--even those who seem sweet and helpful. There are parts of the mystery that are left annoyingly vague, and the motivation behind everything feels odd and underexplained. But regardless, it doesn't take away from the appealing vibe Stolen in Plain Sight cultivates right up into its taut finale.

The script is more consistently strong when it comes to characters, with Melissa Landry being an easy-to-sympathize-with main heroine as played by Gracie Gillam. The opening scene quickly makes you feel for Melissa as she flees from her abusive husband and files a police report against him. The sequence accurately depicts the trauma and discomfort that comes from the aftermath of leaving an abusive relationship, with Gillam selling Melissa's pain with a compelling performance. She continues tapping into her character's emotions as Melissa struggles to adapt to her new life and especially when Ryan's abduction pushes her to the edge. For the second half of the movie, another side of Melissa emerges: a competent sleuth with a fierce Mama Bear energy. She doesn't make many of the usual "Lifetime Investigating Heroine" mistakes, making it tense and enjoyable to see Melissa fight to uncover her hometown's secrets and save her son.

Matching Gillam acting-wise is Betsy Holt, also making her Lifetime debut as Melissa's sister Theresa. Holt and Gillam share authentic chemistry as loyally supportive sisters and Holt becomes an emotional powerhouse as Theresa fights to keep her sister safe and find out what's happened to her nephew. SPOILER ALERT The villains are all just as well-written and acted as the protagonists, with Kyle Clements standing out as surprise conspirator Zach. Unlike his more overtly evil and self-centered father and stepmother, Zach appears to form (in his warped perspective) love for Melissa and Ryan. While he's certainly just as crazed as Kaylene as he tries to force Melissa to run away with him to Mexico, his vaguely defined backstory gives him nuance to separate him from his familial cohorts and Clements allows that depth to come across onscreen. Ann Mahoney and Gary Grubbs, meanwhile, shine in how thoroughly callous and cold-blooded they are as a serial baby-stealing couple. Mahoney in particular is effectively unnerving when Kaylene is initially just Melissa's ultra-neurotic and clingy neighbor, mixing in a healthy dose of nonchalant wickedness when her true nature comes to light. And while Jordan Salloum's Dylan doesn't get as much screentime as the main antagonists, he still gives a frighteningly realistic depiction of an abusive and short-tempered man. Spoilers Over

The slow-boil pace Stolen in Plain Sight takes on with its mystery won't live up to everyone's taste, and the frustrating loose ends that the film leaves behind don't help. But counteracting those issues, the film's atmosphere is alluringly grim and the acting proves to be as strong as the writing behind the characters being portrayed. Its missteps might keep it from joining the ranks of Lifetime's better mystery flicks, but with what it has going for it, Stolen in Plain Sight has enough style and substance to make it worth checking out.

Score: 6.5 out of 10 toy fire trucks.

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About the Creator

Trevor Wells

Aspiring writer and film lover: Lifetime, Hallmark, indie, and anything else that strikes my interest. He/him.

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Twitter: @TrevorWells98

Instagram: @trevorwells_16

Email: [email protected]

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