American television created whole industry out of television films that dramatised real life events. Among those films was In the Line of Duty, at times very interesting series of rather different films that had one plot element in common - true story about law enforcement officer being killed on the job. Kidnapped, 1995 entry to the series, directed by Bobby Roth, seemed like a departure from that pattern.
Plot begins in Los Angeles where rich and corrupt lawyers are targeted by criminal who kidnaps their children and holds them for astronomical ransoms. FBI agent Pete Honeycutt (played by Timothy Busfield) is put in charge of task force that must investigate those cases and catch the perpetrator. Honeycutt soon finds out that the job is much harder than he could have anticipated - the kidnapper is not only very cunning, but also seems quite familiar with various professional tricks of law enforcement. For Arthur Milo (played by Dabney Coleman) this wasn't very difficult, since he happens to be IRS agent and that position provides him with access to various law enforcement organisations and financial data of his potential victims. The game of cat and mouse begins, and Milo seems to be ahead of Honeycutt, but the kidnapper would soon become over-confident because of his success.
Unlike most of other In the Line of Duty films, this one doesn't seem to be based by any real event. The plot, whether it was based, loosely inspired or simply invented by the scriptwriter Thomas Baum, is nevertheless very interesting from the beginning to the end. Bobby Roth's direction is television routine and it doesn't stand in the way of intriguing plot. The best thing about this television film is Dabney Coleman who gives very believable portrayal of rather unconventional villain. Unfortunately, Timothy Busfield is not exactly effective as his adversary. However, Kidnapped, whether it is docudrama or standard television thriller, could be recommended as passable entertainment.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on November 13th 2002)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/403413-in-the-line-of-duty-kidnapped?language=en-US
Critic: AA