Natalee Holloway (2009)

** (out of 4)

Lifetime Movie Network produced TV movie tells the story of Beth Twitty (Tracy Pollan) who headed to Aruba after her 18-year-old daughter Natalee went there for a trip and turned up missing. The prime suspect was a local named Joran Van Der Sloot but his changing stories and possible cover ups by the police leaves this case unsolved. I admit to being one of those who heard about this case early on and followed most of it so I really didn't learn anything new by this movie. If you're familiar with the case then this movie isn't going to teach you anything and if you haven't heard of the case then I doubt the movie is going to tell you enough to get a full view of the case. There were many different stories told by the suspects and a couple of them are looked at here but in the end the movie just isn't strong enough to work. I found Pollan to go over the top way too many times and at points in the film she'd become quite annoying. The big prayer sequence was so over acted that I wanted to look away. Some could call this TV acting, which to me is unfair to say but I wasn't impressed. The direction is decent but the screenplay could have used some work. The film tries to tell a big message of being careful when you're overseas but I think it overlooks the biggest flaw in the real story and that's 18-year-old girls shouldn't be given the keys to run wild in a foreign place and getting drunk. The drinking issue is the real message that should have been given off because sadly, this isn't the first girl to get drunk and have something bad happen to her by the hands of a guy.