Taken Away (2014)

Better Late Then Never

Am I Missing Something?

A Brilliant Conflict

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Taken Away is a Lifetime TV movie about a politician's rebellious daughter who was forced to give up her baby for adoption.It stars Chelsea Ricketts,Julie Warner,Lisa Sheridan,Jake Thomas and Michael Nouri.It was written and directed by Michael Feifer.A corrupt Senator from California,Senator Worthington is up for re- election.When she found out that her rebellious 17-year daughter Vicky got pregnant by drug dealer.Fearing that could hurt him politically,he decides to cover it up by giving the baby for adoption.A year later,Vicky is now a college student at Massachusetts.She meets a fellow college student Lucas and convinces her to take her baby back.Then she goes back to California and works for an adoption agency.After illegally getting the information on her baby's adoptive parents - Richard and Sarah Martin - and get to visit them,she find out that her baby is in good hands.But nevertheless,she still decides to take this battle into court and recover her baby back.For viewers,it may have resulted into insulting their intelligence presented a lot of confusion in it.Among them are characters involved particularly their emotions felt and what they are truly all about.Is Senator Worthington truly corrupt who cares only for his political career or a loving father that truly cares for Vicky? What about Sarah's feelings towards her adopted baby:will she fight for her towards till the end or not?Too bad there were a lot of unexplained changes and inconsistencies in the personalities of the characters involved.Aside from the characters,even the events of the screenplay presented a lot of uncertainty as well.How does Vicky get into one of the top schools of the country located in Massachusetts(probably Harvard)but has shown in early parts of the movie as being involved in a lot of crazy things like being in a relationship with a drug dealer or probably being into drugs as well?Many events during her pregnancy and her sudden change from being an irresponsible individual to becoming a mature College student lacks explanation.Added to that,a lot of the events lack logic and realism. And there's more.There were a lot of conveniences and contrivances made as the story progressed to make every character in it happy that an intelligent viewer would not believe them at all.Do I need to mention how it became cheesy and melodramatic as it heads towards the end?Ambivalence was definitely the thematic element of this TV movie.But if ambivalence was used as a story telling technique,then it has truly succeeded.

I was bothered how in the beginning of the movie the women adopting the baby was guaranteed by her doctor that she could not have children because she had PCOS and that it has been thoroughly researched. This is not true. PCOS isn't new and it is well know that women with PCOS can still have children, even though it may be more difficult. with proper treatment and changes in diet and exercise women can have children, this coming from a woman who has been diagnosed with PCOS and also expecting. There were some other misleading statements but of all of them the one related to PCOS is what disturbed me the most.Also I wasn't to fond of the ending

Throughout this movie, the dialogue was stilted, with a very shallow understanding of the real emotions involved. The adoptive parents were not portrayed accurately, but this is the fault of the writers, not the actors. The senator father was stereotypical.The plot was a bit far-fetched to begin with, and became more so as it went along.The college boyfriend kept urging her to fight for custody, even after she said the baby was with good parents.The acting was very good in the birth mother's emotional plea at the mediation hearing, but the adoptive mother's reaction was totally unrealistic. The "happily ever after" ending was just too much.

The only reason this movie gets a one is because the system won't accept a zero. This is a terrible movie. Do NOT waste your time. When it ended, my two even-tempered roommates and I were furious. The worst thing is that the girl gets the baby in the end when no system would ever allow such a thing. What she did was illegal! She stole the family's file and used it to track them down and visit them. She claimed to be someone she wasn't and made a mess of things. When it came down to it, she was not at all after what was best for her child and therefore should not have had the baby in the end. She should have been sued by the parents for stealing their private information. Again, worst movie ever made by Lifetime.