Amber's Story

This was a decent enough movie with a couple well-known actors about the story behind the Amber Alert System. The lead actress, Elisabeth Röhm, is not as bad as some here will have you believe. As for the accent, it sounds a lot like her voice was dubbed over but I've heard Texan accents and accents from GA and AL too that sound just as awful so hey... At any rate, this movie obviously didn't have an enormous budget so don't expect a Tinseltown-esque production but what's even more obvious is that Hollywood just doesn't quite care about the things the average Joe cares about, like the story behind the Amber Alert, Amber Hagerman's story. Good thing Lifetime did.

I think Elizabeth Rohm is from Law & Order? I only watch Criminal Intent, so I'm not familiar with any of her other work. But her accent in the Amber movie made it clear that she's not a Southerner. Her accent was such a distraction that I could barely watch the first story.

The second part, with Nichole, was much more watchable. The abductor was perfectly cast (creepy like an obscene phone caller), and the other actresses gave taut performances. I will say, though, that if the real Glen looked anything like the actor version, Sharon should have seen warning signs way before she did. Creepy.

Honestly, very sad story. Very tragic outcome for this family, and it is still so heartbreaking many years later.

But, you'd think with how serious a crime and how devastating a loss this was for the family that they'd have done a better job with the script, and the cast, and the direction of the film.

Everyone knows the accents were bad. Particularly that of Ambers Mom. Atrocious. Maybe if the accents were better, it would've improved the film. Sad they didn't honor the story better.

I thought the acting was a bit amateurish. I am originally from Arlington, TX and the accent that Elisabeth Rohm CLAIMED to have had was way too over dramatic. You could tell that it was fake. There wasn't enough acting out of the little girl who played Amber to really comment. I thought the story told as much as it could. Especially if the killer still hasn't been found, there is only so much you can tell. I was actually wondering what else they were gonna put into this movie. I hadn't even heard about little Nichole until this movie and for her kidnapper to only get 5 years??? What kind of justice is that! He COULD have hurt her and wanted to, I for sure thought he was gonna rape her. But thanks to Amber, he didn't have time to do anything! I thought this was a very well told story of what really happened to Amber. I hope they find her killer.

I give it 2 for at least attempting to tell an important story and raise awareness, but if it wasn't dealing with such a serious issue and I was rating it as a movie alone, it would have to be 0/10.

Much has been written here about Rohm's accent, and as a film fan and someone who dated a Texan, I have to say I was quite shocked. In fact, I am quite convinced many of the words coming out of her mouth were spoken by someone else, or dubbed afterwards. Either way, it was unconvincing to put it mildly.

As a fan of Angel and having watched every episode at least 3 times, I am very familiar with Rohm. I happen to think her performance as Kate Lockley was excellent, so I disagree with the "she can't act" opinions. However she certainly didn't act here, and nor was she alone in that.

The only performance in this movie worth mentioning was that of Jodelle Ferland, who is one of the best child actors around. If she gets the right parts, she will be an Academy award winner, or I'll eat my hat.

Watch it if you want to learn about Amber's story, but don't watch it for entertainment value.