Abducted: Fugitive for Love

At the start of the movie, a pretty blonde woman is being chased through the woods by U.S. Marshals, who demand to know where "he" is. Wait a minute: the title of the movie is "Abducted" (at least it was when I saw it)--does this mean that SHE abducted HIM? Usually it's the other way around.

Melanie Stone has been married for 8 years to Washington State prison warden Tom, who is running for mayor and later governor. He is very controlling and not particularly loving, and anything Melanie does affects his image. And Tom seems to be spending a lot of time with campaign manager Paula, dark-haired, beautiful (Melanie is merely pretty) and intelligent.

Melanie has two jobs at the prison: teaching GED classes, and running a farm. She used to be a swim coach (that means we get to see teenage girls in swimsuits), but her friend Amy has taken over that job.

Jack Carlson has gotten into yet another fight. He is two years into a 16-year sentence, but Tom warns him that if that behavior continues, that could be a life sentence instead. Tom assigns Jack to a work furlough--at the farm Melanie runs.

Do I have to tell you anything else? Actually, I do. While you may think you know what will happen at this point, about halfway through the movie, everything changes. It's no longer the same movie. It's actually quite good from that point on. Okay, it's good with Melanie or Jack or both on screen. And even the actor playing Tom has more range in his performance. The actors playing the top U.S. Marshals seem like they're sitting around the table reading the lines for the first time, or perhaps auditioning and being told "Thanks, we'll be in touch." Their lines are well-written, though, and the characters seem to be quite intelligent and capable just based on that.

It's actually pretty exciting.