Lee Gabiana | Through the Shattered Lens

Technically, I didn’t watch this last night. I watched it earlier this morning on Prime. But seriously, morning? Night? When you sleep as little as I do, it really doesn’t make a difference.

Why Was I Watching It?

As most of our longtime readers know, I love Lifetime movies. I used to review hundreds of Lifetime movies a year. Unfortunately, over the past few years have been busy one and I haven’t been able to keep up with the latest Lifetime films like I used to. That’s something that I want to change so I’ve decided to start getting caught up with this year’s films. It’s time to once again embrace the melodrama!

After getting two hours of sleep, I woke up this morning feeling under the weather. I told my sister to go to mass and say a prayer for my continued life. And then, once I had the house to myself, I watched Killing The Competition. Why did I pick that particular Lifetime film? Three words: Melissa. Joan. Hart. SABRINA! Hart has appeared in her share of Lifetime films over the past few years and she always throws herself into each one. When I read that this film featured Hart as an obsessive cheer mom, I knew there was no way I couldn’t watch.

What Was It About?

In high school, Elizabeth (Melissa Joan Hart) was a cheerleader and a member of the chess team. (“See, I was smart!” she says while looking through an old yearbook.) She claims that she was head dancer, even though the cheerleading team has never had a head dancer. Now that she’s married and bored with her suburban existence, Elizabeth pushes her teenage daughter, Grace (Lily Brooks O’Bryant), to try out for the squad. When Grace isn’t selected, Elizabeth lodges a formal complaint and the mayor of the town announces that not only will Grace be a cheerleader but so will every other girl who was rejected that year. Grace is excited but Elizabeth is worried that this will now cause people to view Grace as being a loser who was forced onto the team.

At first, I assumed that Elizabeth would be one of those cheer moms who hired a hitman to take out one of her daughter’s cheer rivals. Instead, Elizabeth turns out to be so pathologically jealous that she gets upset when her daughter makes the team. Elizabeth convinces herself that Grace’s boyfriend is cheating with another cheerleader (Valerie Loo) and that Grace is about get dumped. When Grace doesn’t get dumped or humiliated, Elizabeth goes off the deep end.

What Worked?

Again, three words: Melissa. Joan. Hart. Whether she’s sneaking into cheerleader try-outs or spying on her daughter while wearing sunglasses and a wig, Hart is a total joy to watch as Elizabeth goes mad with envy. Elizabeth tries to run her daughter’s boyfriend over with her car. Elizabeth steals her daughter’s phone and sends texts. (She takes a picture of a wedding dress and sends Grace’s boyfriend a text that reads: “Thinking of the future.”) Elizabeth insists that everyone try on her former cheerleading uniform. Elizabeth talks about how no one will ever forget who you were when you were in high school. Elizabeth points a gun at people and then tries to convince them that it’s no big deal. Elizabeth does a lot of things and Melissa Joan Hart does a great job portraying each and every one of them.

What Did Not Work?

At times, this film was almost too self-aware. That may seem like a strange thing to say about a Lifetime film but I always like the Lifetime films that are subtly self-aware as opposed to the ones that attempt to scream from the rooftops, “We’re laughing with you!” The best Lifetime films often feel like a private joke between the network and its fans, one that only devoted watchers will be able to fully understand and appreciate.

“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments

Watching this film, I realized how lucky my sister Erin and I were. Our mom was supportive but she wasn’t crazy. She went to every game when Erin was a cheerleader. No matter where we were living, she always found me a dance teacher and she always told me how proud she was of me and she always made me feel like I was the greatest dancer in the world. She was supportive and, though we didn’t appreciate it at the time, she sacrificed a lot to make sure we could do what we wanted to do. But, at the same time, she never tried to kill anyone. We never had to deal with the awkward moment of the police showing up at the house with an arrest warrant. That was a good thing.

Lessons Learned

I still enjoy Lifetime movies! Yay!

John Robinson has been described as being the Internet’s first serial killer.

I don’t know if that’s an accurate description but it is true that Robinson, who most of his neighbors and family knew as just being a somewhat eccentric businessman who always seemed to be in trouble with the IRS, did make contact with several of his victims in online chatrooms. No one is quite sure how many women Robinson killed in the 80s and the 90s. Robinson himself has given contradictory numbers. What is know is that Robinson started out by luring women to his home by claiming that he had a job for them. Many of the women who accepted his job offer were either never seen again or their bodies were eventually found on his properties in Kansas and Missouri. Eventually, after serving time on fraud conviction, Robinson started to use internet chatrooms to find his victims. He used the screenname Slavemaster, something that would have undoubtedly stunned all of his neighbors.

In Kidnapped By A Killer, Steve Guttenberg plays John Robinson. Now, it should be noted that Guttenberg doesn’t get much screentime and he’s also nearly unrecognizable under a ton of old age makeup. Guttenberg plays Robinson as being a creepy old man who uses the fact that he walks with a cane to put people at ease. The film doesn’t spend much time with Robinson and it doesn’t show any of his murders. Instead, the focus is on the police who investigated Robinson and also on Heather Robinson, a young woman who was Robinson’s adoptive niece but who was also the daughter of one of Robinson’s victims. After killing her mother, Robinson “gave” Heather to his brother and sister-in-law, telling them that her mother had been a drug addict who abandoned her baby.

The majority of the film focuses on Heather (Rachel Stubington), who is a teenager when John is arrested for the murders that he committed. Heather struggles to come to terms with the knowledge that her uncle — who seemed kindly, if a bit corny — murdered her mother and that she was essentially kidnapped and given away. What seemed like an act of kindness — Uncle John not wanting a drug addict’s daughter to get lost in the system — was actually John Robinson’s attempt to cover up his crimes. Much like the criminal who starts a business to launder money, Heather’s adoption was John’s attempt to launder evidence. Stubington does a good job as Heather, capturing her struggle to come to terms with her identity. The scenes of her dealing with her feelings towards John and the scenes of hardened detectives recoiling in shock as they discover the remains of John’s victims all serve as a reminder that murder is not an isolated crime. It’s something that effects communities and families long after the act itself has been completed.

Kidnapped By A Killer deserves credit for focusing on a victim instead of on John Robinson, himself. Too often, when it comes to true crime movies, the victims are forgotten while the serial killer gets all the best lines and the big moments. Kidnapped By A Killer presents John Robinson as being a rather pathetic old man and that’s perhaps the best thing about it.