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
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