Stacy ("Stace") lives in Illinois and is a confused eighteen-year-old with wanderlust. She leaves home with only $200 in her pocket primarily because she is restless and does not get along well with her mom. At a truck stop, she is picked up by a stranger named Richard, who promises her the universe, then lets her down when it clear that he is mentally deranged. He seeks ransom money from her distraught parents to return her to her family, and the longest stretch of the film is a standoff in a motel in Kansas.
"Stolen Innocence" was based on a true story. But the filmmakers take an ambivalent stance on Richard. Was the bizarre relationship between Stace and Richard a "Romeo and Juliet"? Or, was it an example of the Stockholm syndrome where the victim identifies with the captor? The film combines a pseudo love story with a generic hostage film. Predictably, the results are uneven.
The sequence in the motel with a mad dash by the father to simulate a ransom drop, followed by protracted phone negotiations, food sent in with knockout drops, and a stray kitten, is a capsule of the drama with Richard holding Stace in a room that looks like a paramilitary arsenal.
The real hostage scene lasted twenty-two hours, and it feels as if that amount of time elapses in the closing section of the film. Richard's motto (in Latin) was "Don't let the system grind you down." The filmmakers made Richard far too glamorous than he deserved. It was almost as if the "stolen innocence" of the film's title were an expression of sympathy for Richard's hard lot in life. Wow!
The real Richard received a prison sentence of twenty-five years for his shenanigans. Viewers can make up their own minds, based on this film, if the sentence was too long or too short.
"Stolen Innocence" was based on a true story. But the filmmakers take an ambivalent stance on Richard. Was the bizarre relationship between Stace and Richard a "Romeo and Juliet"? Or, was it an example of the Stockholm syndrome where the victim identifies with the captor? The film combines a pseudo love story with a generic hostage film. Predictably, the results are uneven.
The sequence in the motel with a mad dash by the father to simulate a ransom drop, followed by protracted phone negotiations, food sent in with knockout drops, and a stray kitten, is a capsule of the drama with Richard holding Stace in a room that looks like a paramilitary arsenal.
The real hostage scene lasted twenty-two hours, and it feels as if that amount of time elapses in the closing section of the film. Richard's motto (in Latin) was "Don't let the system grind you down." The filmmakers made Richard far too glamorous than he deserved. It was almost as if the "stolen innocence" of the film's title were an expression of sympathy for Richard's hard lot in life. Wow!
The real Richard received a prison sentence of twenty-five years for his shenanigans. Viewers can make up their own minds, based on this film, if the sentence was too long or too short.