source: 53 Days: The Abduction of Mary Stauffer

I'll keep this short and sweet. The story here is very close to the actual happenings of the Mary Stauffer kidnapping, but because this was a film designed for a TV audience, including children, it spares many of the horrific accounts that actually took place. Hannigan delivers above all in this movie to portray Mary, a role that is difficult to capture and required a lot of pressure to take on. It's also an excellent testament to the power of hope and prayer. The morals that the world learned from the actual crime are easily pushed in a proper manner.

The acting is truly awful, as for the one playing Ming, please go back to drama school, a lump of cardboard would have acted better. This true story deserved a lot better actors to tell it.

A mother and a child held against their will!!! "Abducted: The Mary Stauffer Story" is a harrowing saga of the kidnapping of Mary and Beth Stauffer by a deranged former student. It is also an uplifting story of resilience, courage, and faith. Alyson Lee Hannigan is outstanding in the role of Mary Stauffer. The quiet and determined stoicism of Mary through 53 days of gruesome captivity comes across in the performance. The actor playing Mary's husband Irv was also outstanding. It is even more chilling that the film was based on a true story, given the bizarre motivation of the kidnapper. Ming was a student in a high school class taught by Mary fifteen years ago. He received a bad grade from her that he later attributed to his inability to receive a scholarship. But more than the grade, Ming was obsessed with Mary undoubtedly for her strength of character and her human decency. The film explored themes of love and faith as the resolute Mary is motivated by her love for her daughter Beth, who is also a captive. The mother and daughter worked together to survive torture and abuse. It was peace, love, and faith that allowed them to endure. For Mary, it was "God's promise" that gave her strength. But it was clearly her unwavering determination that led to her delivery from bondage.

True stories are better. This true life kidnapping and rape movie is different from the usual abduction movie in that a mother and daughter were taken together. Also the criminal is Asian American (convincingly acted by Howie Lai). She is subjected to confinement in a cupboard and raped repeatedly. All the details shown are fascinating. Alyson Hannigan mostly associated with American Pie is well suited to this role and acts well. She can do drama too. There is a strong faith element that helped Mary get through. One of the better Lifetime movies. Make sure you watch the beyond the headlines after.

In 1980, school teacher Mary Stauffer (Alyson Hannigan) and her eight-year old daughter Beth are kidnapped by her former student Ming Sen Shiue. They are held captive for 53 days. It's a straight forward Lifetime woman-in-trouble movie. Alyson is good. Most of the actors are fine. Everything is fine and nothing's great.

This review isn't to discredit the ordeal Mary and her daughter went through, but to critique the acting and direction. Horrible!! I've seen better acting from Lifetime and I'm very disappointed in their low budget production of this true story. They sugar coated what happens to Mary and her daughter and should have focused more on making this feel less like a mediocre cry for their fan base. The camera is often unsteady and the actors talk like they are reading from que cards

Reading the stories about the abduction, torture, and daily r*** of Mary Stauffer and her daughter Beth would prepare you for a terrifying, gut-wrenching film about their horrific 7 weeks spent in a closet guarded by the psychopath Ming Sen Shiue. However, none of the characters seemed to be particularly interested in the matter. Mary looked only mildly uncomfortable at her worst, her kidnapper (Ming) was painted to be some sort of relatable guy - even going so far as to give him a tragic backstory, sad conversations with Mary, showing him offering kind gifts to the girls. Even while the kidnapping took place neither of them (including the 8 year old little girl) shed a tear. Ming looked only mildly annoyed when he was arrested for kidnapping, r***, and murder. Her husband looked disinterested throughout the entire movie (bad acting?) Her husband's sister smiled when his kidnapped daughter called them - wouldn't any sane person be petrified that the girl was still stuck with some deranged murderer? But wait... you wouldn't know about the murder. The movie waits until the very end to mention that he killed a little boy whilst abducting the girls. Maybe so the viewer wouldn't lose their pity for this "lonely man who just wanted a family"? The redeeming factors of this movie entirely lies in the quality. It is cinematic, with gorgeous shots and an appropriate soundtrack. The symbolic replacement of the daily r*** (which Ming recorded in real life) with filmed conversations between the two was creative and somewhat appreciated (I would have skipped the scenes had they actually involved r***) - but it detracted from the monster this man truly is. It felt like we were supposed to feel bad for him, in some twisted way. Were he not a real person who actually did these things and worse, maybe I could see this choice. But he does not deserve to be painted as less of a psychotic loser than he really was. This is the same man that not only attacked Mary in court with a knife during his trial, but also offered another inmate 50,000$ to kill both her and her daughter before they could testify. He had no humanity, and you're not fooling anybody by giving him some sad lines and a love for gift giving. If you can't tell the true story, you should have just come up with a work of fiction because this was not remotely representative of what happened to those poor girls.

Over the top tamed down version of events. Made for tv event, really. These true stories SHOULD be treated as true stories and not some cleaned up version. It's a disservice.

The premise is that it's a harrowing story taking place in 1980, when high school teacher Mary Stauffer and her 8 year old daughter, Beth were kidnapped and held captive for 53 days by one of her former students, Ming Sen Shiue, who was obsessed with her. Mary endured torture, rape and numerous threats and as she turned to her faith to sustain her and her daughter while held in captivity, they were able to finally escape their horrific nightmare. You should watch this movie, but bare in mind that it's 1980, so you can tell by the clothes, cars and no cellphones, that it was quite a decade. Mary Stauffer is wonderfully acted by Alyson Hannigan of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' fame.