Lifetime thriller 'Was I Really Kidnapped?' keeps you at your seat's edge as you question every character including Elle's sanity
Spoilers ahead for Lifetime's 'Was I Really Kidnapped?'
What you see may not be reality but a fragment of a pseudo-real experience. Lifetime is back with yet another thriller film and it is loaded with suspenseful action and it sort of succeeds in playing with your thoughts as it manages to keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.
The plot revolves around the lives of three prominent characters — Billy (Jacob Blair), Jen (Anna Hardwick), and Elle (Michelle Mylett). The film starts off with Elle frantically running away from something and she is desperately seeking help from people on the road.
Unfortunately for her, nobody helps her out and she is all by herself against an entity that is supposedly chasing her. At that stage, we do not know if she really ran away from her pursuer’s (kidnapper) place.
The movie immediately takes us into a flashback where it is revealed Billy had proposed to her and she had not said No but hadn’t said Yes either. She kept him hanging in there because she wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do. Billy, for obvious reasons, was upset.
Going ahead, we find out Elle had been undergoing therapy for the last 15 years and she trusted the doctor more than anybody else in the world. Obviously, she wanted to recover from the traumatic experience.
Until now, it seemed like Elle imagined the entire kidnapping and metaphorically speaking, marriage with Billy kind of scared her. She did not like the fact that he was pressurizing her. She felt mentally trapped in the relationship.
She was heavily drugged and she couldn’t make sense of her surroundings or she could have been delusional because of her mental health. But who drugged her, or did she do it to herself?
Somehow, she gets to the hospital and we find out she's been missing for three days straight. We couldn’t help but notice Elle’s body language as it seemed like she was not sure about what she wanted to say.
She was not confident with her version of the truth and constantly kept fiddling with her hands. What was more confusing was that her version of the truth was poles apart from Billy’s version.
Billy worked as a reporter for The Chronicle and had been writing extensively on his girlfriend’s kidnapping with the intention to pressurize the law enforcement department to probe the case. Unfortunately for him, he ended up becoming the prime suspect of Elle’s abduction and all eyes were on him since his version of the truth was different from Jen’s version.
Ryan ( who happens to be Billy’s colleague swooped in to testify for him. Ryan was portrayed as a simpleton forever struggling to make ends meet considering the layoff, which had left him with nothing.
Ryan was inspired by Billy’s work and he always strived to be close to Billy. But he is a grey character with minimal character development. Elle has several nightmares and all she can see is Billy holding her hostage with a ring, forcing her to marry him.
As the plot unfolds, it makes you question each character and most importantly, it makes you question Elle’s sanity. When the masked kidnapper is depicted in memory, you can only see his dark brooding eyes. It looked a lot like Billy and the events that happen reassure us Billy is the kidnapper.
A flashback at the dinner table is recurrent and that is out a hint, to read all the character’s body language. Billy always said, "We are going to be together one way or the other" and the kidnapper too, said similar things. Up to this point, we are convinced it is Billy’s split personality that overtakes him when he is rejected.
Billy has always hated Elle’s doctor because he had been implanting false memories into her head. He knew of it so he asked her to stop seeing that doctor, but she wouldn’t listen. So, he goes into the office and finds her file and was horrified to find indecent pictures and things written about Elle.
It was clear the doctor is obsessed with Elle and wants her to always need him. Billy thinks it is the doctor who kidnapped her. Although the doctor got arrested for misbehaving with his client and giving her the wrong prescription, he was not the kidnapper.
Now, why would any sane person go back to the place they were kidnapped, unless they want to be kidnapped again? However, in this case, it was to reveal the biggest plot twist of the story — Ryan was the one who had kidnapped Elle.
Of course, nobody saw that coming. He drugged her and held her hostage. Ryan then reveals he's been jealous of the things that Billy owned — his job, house, a loving girlfriend and obviously the money.
He wanted everything Billy had, including his girlfriend. So, he played nasty but got served by Billy and Elle who saved each other’s lives. All's well that ends well. Elle proposed to Billy and they were finally engaged. There was no looking back after that. Normalcy returned to their lives for a happy ending. Overall, a good watch and the thriller sequences are incredible.
