Last night, as a part of my continuing effort to watch 38 movies in 10 days, I watched Abducted: The Jocylen Shaker Story.  Abducted originally aired February 14th on Lifetime.  That’s right — this movie premiered on Valentine’s Day!  I was in San Antonio when it aired, enjoying a romantic night down on the Riverwalk, so I missed the original showing.  Fortunately, the DVR saves all.

And really, Abducted is a strange movie to show on Valentine’s Day.  It’s not a romantic film at all.  Instead, it’s a missing child thriller.  Caitlin Shaker (Kathleen Rose Perkins) is an American who has married a wealthy Colombian businessman, Javier (Kamar de los Reyes).  While Caitlin and Javier are visiting a resort in the rain forest, their daughter, Jocelyn, vanishes.

Suddenly, Caitlyn and Javier find themselves suspected of having done something to Jocelyn.  Though one Colombian detective, Susanna (Eileen Roca Torralva), believes that Caitlin is innocent, she is ignored by her sexist superiors.  The head of the investigation, Captain Rojas (Luis Fernando Hoyos), declares that Javier must be guilty and has him arrested for murder.

Caitlin knows that her husband is innocent but she can’t convince anyone to help her look for her child.  The Colombian authorities want to close the case as quickly as possible.  The American media declares that, even if they are innocent, Caitlin and Javier are still to be blamed for taking Jocelyn to a foreign country in the first place.

Eventually, only Susanna is willing to help Caitlin investigate Jocelyn’s disappearance…

The best thing about Abducted is that it gives Kathleen Rose Perkins a starring role.  If you’ve ever seen the Showtime series Episodes, you will immediately recognize Perkins from her role as the wonderfully neurotic and often stoned network executive, Carol Rance.  Episodes is a fairly terrible show but Perkins has always been one of the few bright spots.  In Abducted, she really throws herself into the role of Caitlin, delivering her lines with an emotional intensity that always feels authentic and real.   She is totally sympathetic in the role and elevates the entire film.

As for the film itself, it starts out as your standard Lifetime abduction film but the final 15 minutes, after the real villain has been revealed and Caitlin and Susanna are trying to rescue Jocelyn while rain pours around them, are exciting and well-executed.  It helps that Perkins gives such a great performance that she makes even the most melodramatic and heavy-handed dialogue sound totally and completely credible.  You won’t necessarily be surprised when you discover who the real villains is but you’ll still be happy to see them get their comeuppance.

(Comeuppance … that’s a strange word, no?)

Finally, Abducted was shot on location in Colombia.  Reportedly, the Colombian government has been trying to attract filmmakers, with the hope of changing the country’s international image.  Colombia is a beautiful country and Abducted takes full advantage of all that breathtaking scenery.