Stockholm, Pennsylvania

Leia (Saoirse Ronan) was abducted by stranger Benjamin McKay (Jason Isaacs) at the age of four. She lived in the basement believing the world had ended. After 17 years of isolation, she is reunited with her birth parents (Cynthia Nixon, David Warshofsky). She struggles to acclimate to them who are essentially strangers and even her real name Leanne. Her mother can't leave her by herself and is desperate to connect to her. The marriage is falling apart. Dr. Andrews (Rosalind Chao) is Leia's therapist.

Director Nikole Beckwith strips away any flash or music. The colors are washed out. It is deliberately quiet at times. It leaves the movie feeling dead for the first half. Saoirse is able to maintain interest by her sheer presence. Leia takes a turn around the midpoint. It's a big risk and it becomes bursts of overwrought awkwardness. She needs a connection outside of the situation. The obvious comparison is Room which is more cinematic and has more "life". This is trying to walk down the same path but not as scenic. The two women produce a compelling battle but I'm not sure if it's worthwhile.

Leanne/Leia (Saoirse Ronan) is a young woman who has had two crimes committed against her: she was stolen from her family, and she was robbed of a soul. She was kidnapped as a young child and confined to a windowless room by a kind but deranged stranger (Jason Isaacs) who raised her on lies and subtle influences to make her believe he was her only hope in life (hence the title "Stockholm" Pennsylvania). For obvious reasons, he intended to limit her understanding of the outside world and subsequently rendered her incapable of handling life beyond his walls.

Then it happens that Leia is freed and returned to her biological parents. It should be a happy, joyful reunion; unfortunately, it is anything but.

I'm a huge fan of Saoirse Ronan. She thrilled me in Hanna and ripped my guts out in the Lovely Bones. In this movie she has to play it down, as her character is emotionally stunted from captivity and psychically overwhelmed by the real world. She does a wonderful job as the detached escapee, conveying a wide range of emotions just with those big blue eyes and also with her control of subtle facial expressions.

Cynthia Nixon is also outstanding as the mother, who not only has to accept her own daughter's alienation of affection but also the horrible reality that Leia cannot accept her new situation. She and her flummoxed husband (David Warshofsky) struggle to rekindle the warmth and congeniality of a familial bond that has never really had a chance to exist, while battling with issues that no parent would ever want to have.

Strong praise for writer/director Nikole Beckwith for composing a riveting (if at times deliberately slow-paced) depiction of a true tragedy. Her scenes are at times difficult to endure, but the story is excellent.

I just watched this. I thought Cynthia Nixon was sublime. Her acting was truly captivating and engaging, so talented, I would love to see her in more roles so if anyone can suggest I would be grateful. I feel, dare I say (controversially) Sex & the City was beneath her really after watching this and if that is what she is mostly associated with.

It would've been nice if more detail was given behind the kidnapping. I appreciate the subtlety in a way however. It seems audiences were lost. It would've been nice if there was more insight into Leah's ordeal/experience.

Good film, enjoyed.

I think it was a great movie but it lacked depth. They should have dived deeper into leia's character and her life when she was kidnapped. From the surface, all the kidnapper did wrong is kidnap her, otherwise he raised her quite alright, which is how Leia/Leanne seems to see it but they don't show us enough from her captured time to support that. We're thrown into the story halfway so it's hard to divulge fully into the characters and understand them. The movie seems to lean too much on our preceding knowledge of Stockholm syndrome.

Not the ending itself, but towards the end the story feels rushed, goes against the aura the movie gave out in the first half were they put effort to delicately build the story which I thought was special. The acting was astounding though, especially by Ronan (forgotten how to spell her first name tsss) very believable, feels like it was based on a true story. The plot line isn't the best, especially the twist at the end, a little off, but Ronan really made the best the best out of it.

Although it could have been, it's not exceptional, but I still think it's a good movie.

There are some interesting ideas in this movie sadly they were not implemented...

"Stockholm, Pennsylvania" a young woman kidnapped at 4 and kept in a basement for 18 years is reunited with the parents she doesn't remember,the child-kidnapping genre usually it focuses on the victim and the abductor and ends when the subject is found.This film had a more original spin and focused on the after math.I give the film points for originality, one usually does not see this part we only see the victim's arms wrapped around their parents and the credits start to roll. Leia is deeply attached to the mild-mannered end-of-days cultist (Jason Isaacs, in a very small role) who kidnapped her and cut her off from the outside world. But that enforced seclusion also means that at 22 she's facing the childhood challenges and embarrassments of learning how to operate in the adult world.all this sounds like a filmmaker's dream protect.

Sadly it takes a turn we put ourselves in the shoes of the mother although her intentions are good, she becomes extremely obsessive to get her daughter back to the point that her actions are not so different from the kidnapper,that's when the film loses me,it becomes unrealistic, it is an obsession to achieve her daughters love at all costs.

Strong performances from Saoirse Ronan and Cynthia Nixon, they manage to get the high points of the movie,I leaned more to Emma Donaghue's compelling 2010 novel Room, which developed far more bracing and psychologically nuanced drama out of a similar scenario of shut-ins readjusting to an unknown world.