The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

I'd never heard of the film and by the end was in tears. The lead character Leslie is brilliantly acted. Don't expect feel good. The film should be seen by all caring people. Child abduction is evil. Knowing that intellectually is one thing but seeing the reality of it is necessary for people to put an end to it.The film is a heart breaker

We can't … enjoy the movie, because it isn't meant to entertain. It's a detailed docudrama that shows the abduction and forced prostitution of an eight-year-old girl, then the permanent destruction of her life in her teen years.It's gut-wrenching. The first half of the movie plays almost like a twisted procedural in which a child pornographer and slaver (brilliantly and unexpectedly portrayed by Tom Arnold) tricks and kidnaps young Leslie (Ryan Simpkins).We're shown the nuts and bolts of everything – starting with how Arnold's character earns her trust ("Can you help me find my dog?", "I'm a friend of your father's.") And Arnold is so convincing in the role, it's easy to see how lines like this can fool a child. We see how she's drugged, imprisoned, and persuaded that her parents don't want her anymore, then how she's coaxed and reassured into prostitution to pedophiles. There were a few times when I wanted to shout at the screen – such as when Arnold's character actually coaches the prepubescent girl about what customers expect. Then we're even shown how children are marketed and sold – with catalogs and photos and polite, secret business meetings. Jeremy Sisto and Harold Perrineau show up in effective supporting roles that will turn your stomach.Then – midway through the film, we fast-forward to Leslie's life as a teenager, where she is now somehow free of Arnold and his even more evil partner (well played by Kevin Zegers, who I remember best as the sweetnatured, clean-cut kid in Zack Snyder's 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" remake).Again – it's hard to know whether to recommend this movie. To call it sad would be an understatement. It IS a pretty well made film – the acting is great all around, and especially from Arnold. And IMDb.com says that that writer/director Damian Harris developed it after years of research among child victims.It has some problems, though. For a drama about a victim, its central character just isn't well rendered or extremely likable. It's awkwardly structured. Unless I'm mistaken, we never find out how Leslie escapes her captors.The movie is also poorly paced, I think … it drags a bit around the middle and the anticlimactic ending feels like a postscript. Finally, it seems to make little use of John Malkovich's genius in a supporting role. (That guy is goddam mesmerizing – like Anthony Hopkins, he could read names out of a telephone book and make it interesting.)Quite honestly, if this movie is as accurate as it claims (and there's no reason to think it wouldn't be), it would make a great educational tool. No child should watch it, but it's so explicit and procedural in nature that it seems like a great resource for training police officers or parents.If you watch this, I strongly recommend watching "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" or "Old School" afterward – y'know … just so you don't kill yourself.http://ericrobertnolan.wordpress.com/

I've seen a lot of movies, and this one is one of the few that is hard to watch. Not because it's necessarily bad on a cinematic level; the acting is great, and the directing and camera work are just fine. It's hard to watch because of the brutal reality (read: evil) that exists in our world. I feel the first hour of the film could have told in at least half the time – as there are certain things you just don't want to see, and/or turn a blind eye to and pretend they don't exist or happen. However, by leaving it that long, it forces the viewer to enter their world – it's as if they are holding your eyes open for you and you have no other choice (clockwork orange style).I think it's a powerful story, and told well, as it explores most avenues and consequences associated with that lifestyle. The story is sad, heartbreaking, and repulsive, yet almost beautiful with undertones of love, forgiveness, and what it means to be 'family'.

This is a good movie. In fact, it's an exceptionally well done movie that tackles an impossibly difficult and even horrific subject and that, as a result, makes it often a very difficult movie to watch. It's not a sob-story happy ending kind of movie, either, so by the time it comes to an end you don't really feel at all uplifted. In fact, you feel kind of worn down, upset - even angry.The subject of the movie is child sexual exploitation. A darker, seedier and more disturbing storyline probably doesn't exist. It revolves around Leslie (played by Ryan Simpkins as a young child and Gillian Jacobs as a teen.) Leslie is kidnapped at the age of 8 and essentially forced into a life of child prostitution. Thankfully, nothing graphic is shown (obviously nothing sexual, and no physical abuse of any kind, really), but just knowing the situation makes your heart bleed for this girl and at times ties your stomach in knots.The kidnapper is played by Tom Arnold. The portrayal of a sick man luring his victim into his clutches and gradually making her more and more dependent on him to the point at which he can take her out in public and she won't try to escape or tell anyone what's going on is truly disturbing. There's no real closure with Arnold's character of Alex, either. Somehow Leslie and her friend Donnie (who was held captive as well) are just all of a sudden on their own. There's no mention of how they got away, or of what happened to Alex.One piece of advice: this seems to me to be a pretty accurate depiction (a psychological one mostly) of children being kidnapped and then sexually exploited. It's filmed mostly from Leslie's point of view, so it is a hard movie, and if you watch a tough movie expecting (and even needing) everything to work out in the end and everybody to live happily ever after then don't watch this. It's not a fairy tale. Not in any way, shape or form. It's dark and disturbing from the first to the last moment. But if you can get through that, it's also a very powerful and well made movie. (8/10)