Contentar
Best movie of this year hands down!
Grimossfer
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
redeyedtreefrog
I am a little surprised at the low ratings this movie has received. The concept is a simple one, love and loss; it is eloquently portrayed in Long Lost Son. In the case of Quinn, he was a monster in what he did to his wife and son but not so much so that when he had the opportunity to kill her... he did not. When cornered he admitted what he did and gave them back each other, knowing that he may never see Mark again. Mark took a leap of faith into his mother's arms, leaving all he had known to be with a family he did not know. The unsung hero, I think, is Steve - the step-father. Without getting too personal I have to say that his support was not just that of an unsung hero but almost that of a superhero. Quinn was a conman to everyone including himself and there is no excuse, no reason to put a mother (or father) or child... through such a violent and senseless separation. It is the strong ones that never give up hope despite the burning madness to either give up or block out. Maybe I like this movie so much because of the parallels in my life and maybe that is the best reason of all to recommend it!!!
lex-vaniterson
I can't believe anyone who was in or behind this picture can be proud of it. Gabrielle Anwar plays awful in this hunt for her son, which is captured by her make believe nasty husband. He raises the boy in a loving way (although, it seems like it) and turns him into a real world citizen, happy too. In a day or so 15 years are forgotten, the father sees he was wrong and likely ends on an island of 1 square mile to die a dreadful dead. The boy forgets over sudden nearly every day of his happy life with his dad and runs with his mother to LA (I've seen many places in the USA, but would rather live in Kabul than in LA). Is this happy ever after? A very flat movie, with bad digital effects, poor performance and a laughable story. 90 minutes of my life in the trash bin - it's a pity
Made in the USA
So the wife leaves her husband because he put her through law school and bought a boat to start a business in the Caribbean. Real hard life. She never makes use of her education, wants a divorce, uses lawyers to take everything, including the kid. All he wants to do is make it work for them. Loves her, loves his family. He wasn't a cheater or a womanizer or an alcoholic or anything like that. He just wants to build a better life for his child. She will have none of it.So the father fakes his and his son's death. He goes on to raise a young man who can speak 4 languages, has seen a lot of the world, is cultured, educated, well mannered, healthy, and wealthy. Not to mention he lives in paradise.Meanwhile, she remarries and has 2 very problematic children. Stepson is going to court, stepdaughter is about to get kicked out of her first week in college. Obviously she's a real champ of a parent.She finds out her son is alive, throws new family in trash can on her way out of the country illegally, and races to find him. She acts like he's a dog or some other pet, although he's already 18 "she wants him". She ruins her x hubby's life by getting the law after him and threatening him with life in prison, although he is genuine and did everything to make the marriage work, as you'll see. It's guaranteed that her son's life will be degraded by moving to Los Angeles, the butthole of the world. Her stepchildren and her new husband have some major adjustments to overcome as well.Dad ends up starving to death on a deserted island... She gets custody of the ... "man" and lives happily ever after.I have so many issues with this I don't even know where to begin. First, anybody who's been at sea since they were 4yo is not going to settle down in L.A. for more than a week. Secondly, the son wouldn't have left the only parent he ever knew for some stranger. Nor would he leave the only life he knew. Even if he did, he would swim back from L.A. after a very short time. Guaranteed.I wont even get in to the ethical implications. Suffice to say that this movie serves as proof of how sick and backwards the inner workings of some feminine minds can be.The immoral of the story... kill the good husband, mind control the good son. Be selfish because you're a woman and everyone else exists to entertain you.This movie is trash & promotes trashy values, brought to you by Lifetime, a trashy network. At best, Lifetime shows you exactly what NOT to do.
TxMike
We don't see very many TV movies anymore, because most evenings the DVD player is spinning a recent release. But we were attracted to this one. It involves a man and woman whose marriage has gone stale, they are going through a divorce that the husband doesn't want, and there is a 4 year old son in the middle.Gabrielle Anwar is the mother, Kristen Sheppard. She seems to have lost her love for her husband, who had put her through law school. It is 1992 and now she is enlisting the help of her legal friends to put together the divorce petition, and her husband is afraid he is being locked out of their son's life. Craig Sheffer is the husband and father, Quinn Halloran. A former Navy man, he loves the water and sailing, and their young son Mark appears to like it as well. As the movie begins he only has visitation rights one weekend a month. On one visitation, Quinn takes Mark out on the boat even though inclement weather and winds are forecast. To make a short statement, the boat ends up overturned, and the searchers find no trace of the dad or the son. Mom is broken up, and the movie switches to 14 years later, 2006, and she is re-married and apparently happy. However, some friends just came back from a vacation trip to a small island near South America and their home video shows a "Captain John" and his 18 year old son in charge of the boat they chartered, and Kristen recognizes her husband in the video, and suspects that the young man is her son, thought to be dead for 14 years.So, most of the movie is to see if Kristen can track down her former husband and her son and establish the relationship she never was able to.Chace Crawford, a good-looking young man from Texas, is the grown son, Matthew Williams / Mark Halloran. I found myself sympathizing with the father, Quinn. He apparently did a great job of raising the boy, and only spoke admiringly of his mom Kristen, who he was told died in a house fire. I know how hard it is when divorce splits up a family and, even though what Quinn did was legally wrong, I did not find it as "wrong" as Kristen's attempts to lock him out of their son's life.SPOILERS: Kristen did catch up with them, and had a nice day boating and visiting with her son, while Quinn was elsewhere. But when he found out Kristen was there, Quinn and Mark met off on another small island as a hurricane was threatening. Kristen and Mark escaped with the help of a rescue helicopter, but Quinn took the small boat away. It ended with him stranded on nothing more than an rocky outcropping, and we don't know how much longer he will survive. But at least he had 18 years with his son, and he doesn't have to endure a prison sentence.