A teacher of mine often said: "Actions reveal character. Actions do not
determine character. Two people can get hit by a bus: One will become an
embittered shut-in, and the other will remain the life of the party,
always. You determine whether or not you are the person you want to be,
every day, until you die."
It's hard not to think of these words when you watch "Abducted in Plain Sight," the buzzy new Netflix documentary. A little girl--in the seventies, in a small town--is repeatedly molested by her neighbor. She is then abducted by that neighbor. After a harrowing ordeal, she is returned, but *her mother then sends her out again to be adducted, a second time, by the same neighbor* ....
All of this is remarkable--but what's extraordinary is the way the little girl picks herself back up. In adolescence, she endures physical assault and the belief that the world will end if she does not get pregnant. (This belief is planted in her head by her assailant.) 99 out of 100 people would endure this stress and then become a shut-in--and we wouldn't blame them, because it would seem very, very appealing just to "tune out" after all that abuse.
But that's not what the main person in "Abducted" does. First, she forgives her parents for their role in her adolescence. (It's mind-blowing that she's able to do this--the level of negligence on her parents' part is astounding--but, smartly, she says that "the failure to forgive can be a kind of prison. It boxes you in." She tells herself a story--her parents were "groomed" by a brilliant and nefarious mastermind--and it doesn't really matter if the story captures the Entire Picture. It's a story that works for her, a story that allows her to forgive.)
Beyond this tremendous act, another thing: The main person in the movie is able to (a) confront her assailant in court and speak calmly and rationally about what this assailant owes to the world, and to himself, (b) collaborate with her (seriously questionable) mother to write a book about what happened, and (c) speak nationwide, and on camera, with relative calm, about the ordeal she went through. There isn't much of anything resembling self-pity. I'm floored to think about this woman.
Anyway, that's the reason to watch--that protagonist. The story itself is twisty and bizarre--sort of like a real-life "Shadow of a Doubt"--but the deranged evildoer isn't half as interesting as the survivor, the woman who makes it through hell and keeps going. She is someone you won't forget.
It's hard not to think of these words when you watch "Abducted in Plain Sight," the buzzy new Netflix documentary. A little girl--in the seventies, in a small town--is repeatedly molested by her neighbor. She is then abducted by that neighbor. After a harrowing ordeal, she is returned, but *her mother then sends her out again to be adducted, a second time, by the same neighbor* ....
All of this is remarkable--but what's extraordinary is the way the little girl picks herself back up. In adolescence, she endures physical assault and the belief that the world will end if she does not get pregnant. (This belief is planted in her head by her assailant.) 99 out of 100 people would endure this stress and then become a shut-in--and we wouldn't blame them, because it would seem very, very appealing just to "tune out" after all that abuse.
But that's not what the main person in "Abducted" does. First, she forgives her parents for their role in her adolescence. (It's mind-blowing that she's able to do this--the level of negligence on her parents' part is astounding--but, smartly, she says that "the failure to forgive can be a kind of prison. It boxes you in." She tells herself a story--her parents were "groomed" by a brilliant and nefarious mastermind--and it doesn't really matter if the story captures the Entire Picture. It's a story that works for her, a story that allows her to forgive.)
Beyond this tremendous act, another thing: The main person in the movie is able to (a) confront her assailant in court and speak calmly and rationally about what this assailant owes to the world, and to himself, (b) collaborate with her (seriously questionable) mother to write a book about what happened, and (c) speak nationwide, and on camera, with relative calm, about the ordeal she went through. There isn't much of anything resembling self-pity. I'm floored to think about this woman.
Anyway, that's the reason to watch--that protagonist. The story itself is twisty and bizarre--sort of like a real-life "Shadow of a Doubt"--but the deranged evildoer isn't half as interesting as the survivor, the woman who makes it through hell and keeps going. She is someone you won't forget.
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