Are You My Daughter? (2015 TV Movie) User Reviews (7)

Watch Your Neck

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 21 October 2015]

On a busy west coast wharf, beautiful blonde Brooke Langton (as Laura) discovers her adorably cute three-year-old daughter is missing. After the credits, 14 years have passed. Now divorced, Ms. Langton is a wealthy and identically attractive criminal defense attorney. She is still friendly with ex-husband Mike Dopud (as Richard Paddington), a doctor working abroad. Sadly, their abducted daughter was never found. Langton is now living with a man she met in her grieving support group, Peter Benson (as Jacob Nyholm). One day, Langton donates some stuff to a shelter and meets pretty blonde teenager Stephanie Bennett (as Rebecca). Langton is stricken with Ms. Bennett. She thinks Bennett is her long-lost daughter, Zoe. We quickly learn Bennett has a unique birthmark on the back of her neck which matches little Zoe's exactly...

Great, right? Well, no...

Since this is a "Lifetime" TV movie, you know something is going to go wrong. With his "bad ticker," suspicious Jerry Wasserman (as Garwin) has a role that writes itself. It's not difficult to predict what happens, but the story makes no moves to disguise its simplicity. They know you know. Everyone does a good job with the assignment. One of director Jason Bourque's best scenes occurs when Langton drives home to retrieve some DNA results and discovers her daughter has skipped an important exam. The director and his crew give this particular part of the story more tension and plausibility than it deserves. The ending suffers in comparison. And, a strange coda only confuses. There should have been an early scene with Langton describing the birthmark or, better yet, adding it to the pictures she posts of her missing daughter.

***** Are You My Daughter? (2015-09-19) Jason Bourque ~ Brooke Langton, Peter Benson, Stephanie Bennett, Mike Dopud

Watchable for a Lifetime flick but definitely not as dark as the poster would suggest

[Seth_Rogue_One · 5/10 · 22 December 2015]

The poster makes it look like a dark psychological thriller, but this is really not that kind of a movie.

It's a fairly easy going Lifetime channel movie for the first half of the movie, with typical good ol' Americans strapped with a smile and a will to please.

It does get more 'thrillerish' in the second half though but never to the point that you are glued to your seats or anything and still remains fairly harmless.

But I mean as far as Lifetime movies goes it's definitely not one of their worst and it did sustain my interest for the most part, but it's definitely not a movie you rewatch a bunch of times, well at least not me.

So semi-recommended I guess if it's on TV and you lack new movies to watch and feel up for something semi-suspenseful without graphic violence or cuss-words.

Good TV movie

[valerietromans · 6/10 · 14 July 2019]

A good movie with good casting. Any mother will tell you they can't imagine the anguish of their child going missing and hope to never have to experience it. This movie lets you understand the mothers experience and desperation to be reunited with her beloved daughter and the lengths some people will go to manipulate those in such a vulnerable position as this mother. I think people can expect too much from a TV movie of which this movie is a prime example. For me they are perfect entertainment in the home for when I'm on my own and just want to step out of my own life and lose myself in someone else's for a few hours.

Not enough of a difference from similar movies

[phd_travel · 3/10 · 11 December 2017]

Missing daughter is reunited years later with mother. Quite a popular Lifetime movie theme. So of course you'd expect something different for this one. It's quite obvious early on the girl is a fake, and everyone but the mother is the last to believe.

So there should be some twist or something but there isn't anything much except the boyfriend from the support group is part of the scheme. She gets exposed and then that's it.

NOT worth watching.

Even the direction is like a lifetrime movie!

[jordondave-28085 · 5/10 · 17 April 2023]

(2015) Stolen Dreams/ Are You My Daughter?

DRAMA

A lawyer and mother, Laura Paddington (Brooke Langton) loses her very young daughter when she was 4 years old, the movie then jumps 17 years later, and upon her seeking 'group therapy' of missing persons. She would then come across a young lady, Rebecca (Stephanie Bennett) who may or may not be her daughter, after donating some of her young daughters personal belongings to a needy foundation. What happens next is a series of events that may cast some doubts. The direction is like a Lifetime movie of the week, i had no idea whether it really is or not!

Lost and Then Found

[kupcr · 8/10 · 5 November 2020]

About 14 years ago, a mother named Laura Paddington (Brooke Langton) had a 3 year old daughter Zoe who went missing from a boardwalk and as the years go by, Laura has suffered from guilt, but she's also seen her marriage to Richard (Mike Dopud) end in divorce. When I started watching this LIFETIME movie, I was a little sceptical at how she met her newest beau Jacob at a support group, played marvellously by Peter Benson, and as he seems like the perfect guy, Jacob tells Laura that she has to move on from the disappearance of her daughter and under Jacob's guidance, Laura finally decides to clean out her daughter's old bedroom. Suddenly when Laura tries to donate her daughter Zoe's clothes to a local shelter, Laura is shocked when she meets Rebecca (Stephanie Bennett) and she not only looks like a teenage version of Zoe, but also has the same birthmark on the back of her neck! After Rebecca gets a DNA test, it is confirmed that she is Laura's daughter ...or is she?

Of all the thousands of children that go missing and never found, this movie gets a high mark because a missing child is found!

The Pink Shrine

[lavatch · 8/10 · 19 January 2020]

An essential visual metaphor for "Are You My Daughter?" (a.k.a., "Stolen Dreams") is the bedroom of Laura Paddington's daughter Zoe, which has been left intact for fourteen years after the little girl was abducted. Laura has kept everything in place to keep the child's memory alive and to dream of giving the child a home if she ever returns. The bedroom is a pink shrine.

Ms. Paddington is a shrewd attorney, who does not shy away from tackling a case against the toughest group of bikers in Seattle called The Black Hole. But, because Laura Paddington has a hole in her soul, due to the loss of her daughter, she is blinded by the truth staring her in the face when an imposter shows up.

The film includes an interesting set of characters, and the suspense is maintained due to some excellent scripting. Laura meets Jacob Nyholm at her support group, and Jacob provides comfort to Laura beyond their group sessions. But Jacob acts a little too much like a saint. There is the old adage that if it appears too good to be true, then it probably isn't what it seems.

The appearance of "Rebecca," claiming to be Zoe, seems all too convenient. Laura's ex-husband, Richard, is the first to observe how Jacob and Laura are looking at each other in a way that signals much more than paternal affection. The wily detective Garwin is on the scent of a rat, prior to his untimely death apparently due to a bum ticker, but in actuality a bottle of Scotch laced with a drug that will give the appearance of a heart attack.

The film was especially well cast, and the performers evoked the creepy realities of a heart-rending domestic scam. One has to feel for the character of Laura Paddington, who wanted a reunion with her daughter so badly that she lost a sense of perspective that nearly ruined her life. Her dreams were stolen fourteen years in the past, and now she must play out a living nightmare.