Movie Review: The Girl Who Got Away (2021)
Synopsis: Twenty years after being the lone survivor of child abductor Elizabeth Caulfield, Christina Bowden has made the most of her second chance, becoming an elementary school teacher and in the process of adopting a 13-year-old foster child. However, things begin to be flipped upside down when Caulfield escapes prison and committing murders while searching for Christina.
Who's in it? The movie stars Lexi Johnson, Chukwudi Iwuji, Kaye Tuckerman, Timothy J. Alex and Willow McCarthy.
Review: My wife and I decided to stay in for New Year's Eve and, with our daughters spending the night at their grandmother's found a movie to watch while waiting for midnight. We came across The Girl Who Got Away on Netflix a couple days earlier and decided to give it a try.
It turned out to be an OK movie. However, it also wasn't much more than that.
Overall, I have to say I liked the main story. Caulfield's (Tuckerman) escape couldn't have come at a worse time for Christina (Johnson), both because it was her birthday and because she was going through the final adoption approval process. In addition to her life being in danger, the escape and the publicity surrounding it threatened to dredge up a past Christina had hoped to keep hidden.
The psychological element was also intriguing. Christina seemed like such a well-adjusted (despite the circumstances) person only to revert to a mental mess as memories of her past came flooding back, triggering her PTSD.
On top of it, as the local sheriff's deputy, Jamie (Iwuji) investigated, it was clear there was more to the story than Christina was telling. My wife and I both wondered if this would be a film with a split personality twist that resulted in Christina turning out to be the killer, especially when her sleepwalking habit was revealed. It added a nice mystery that kept the film from being predictable.
That said, the movie was in desperate need of more thrills and scares. It tended to drag on at times because the writers focused mostly on jump scares that could be seen coming from a mile away.
I also thought the film became a bit muddled at the end because it felt as though there were multiple scenes missing that either made some things a bit confusing or left other things completely unexplained. As examples: Why did the police think Caulfield was dead? Did the adoption agent survive? Was the ex-sheriff (Alex) involved with the kidnappings or just Caulfield's former lover? If not the former, then who was the male accomplice the movie seemed to be hinting at?
The above did distract a bit from the ending, which had quite a few twists and false accusations that didn't work as well because of the missing pieces. This is especially true with how the film ended because it wasn't completely clear if Christina was innocent.
Final Opinion: It's an intriguing movie that is mostly good but lacks much-needed polishing. However, I'd still say it's worth watching.
My Grade: B-
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Here are some reviews of other movies from 2021:
Movie Review: Coming 2 America (2021)
Movie Review: Blood Red Sky (2021)
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