BELIEVE ME: THE ABDUCTION OF LISA McVEY
Canada, 2018, 87 minutes, Colour.
Katie Douglas, David James Elliott, Rossif Sutherland.
Directed by Jim Donovan.
A Canadian feature film about an actual case, set in Florida, the abduction of an 18-year-old girl, Lisa McVey by a serial killer, Bobby Joe Long, raped and then helped in captivity, continual rapes, his decision to get rid of her, hopefully and his letting her go.
This is very tough material. Lisa had been living with her neglectful grandmother and her boyfriend who molested Lisa. When she returns from her abduction, many do not believe her because of the details of her ordeal, but a Detective, Pinkerton, believes her and works with her to identify the abductor. The screenplay follows this in some detail, an intense investigation.
The perpetrator was a serial killer, responsible for a number of crimes in Florida, arrested and then tried, receiving the death penalty.
Katie Douglas plays the young Lisa effectively. Receive Sutherland is the abductor. David James Elliott is Pinkerton, the detective. The actual Lisa makes an appearance as herself.
The film had television and streaming release. In addition to its television broadcast, the film also received a special theatrical screening in Tampa, at the very same theater where Bobby Joe Long was arrested in 1984. The screening of this movie was attended by the real Lisa McVey Noland (Wikipedia)
A postscript revealed that Lisa lived happily with Aunt Carol, Uncle Jim, and Lorrie for many years. Pinkerton remains friends with Lisa to this day. As it shows an adult Lisa near the same tree before she drives off, the post-script continues by stating that Lisa became a deputy sergeant in Sex Crimes, working to protect young people from situations similar to hers. Bobby Joe Long remains on death row. A later airing of this film added that he was eventually executed in prison via lethal injection in 2019.
- Based on a true story? The final images, Lisa as an older woman, police, grandmother?
- The Florida settings, the city of Tampa, the trailer-type neighbourhoods, the streets, buildings and apartments, police precincts? The musical score?
- The first half of the film, the impact for women watching the abduction, the imprisonment, the rapes and assaults? The impact for men? The second part of the film and the police procedural?
- Lisa, her age, at the diner, her charm with customers? Riding home? Her grandmother and her harshness? The man in the house, sexual abuse, the arrangement, the grandmother approving? The contrast with Lisa’s sister, living with her mother, the mother hard and judgemental? The phone calls between the sisters?
- The abduction, at night, the revelation of stalking, the blindfold, not preventing Lisa from seeing so much detail? The apartment, the shower, the assaults? The sandwich? Lisa in the bathroom, leaving the fingerprints? Noticing the detail? The hairpin in the apartment? Her blood in the car? Her pleading with her character, talking about looking after her father? His decision to let her go, under the tree? The symbol of the tree of life?
- The police investigation, the serial killer, the women, torture and deaths? The link with the abductor, Lisa, her story, not being believed, her grandmother and the phone call to the police, the officers listening to her story, thinking she was making it up? Her growing desperation? The title of the film?
- Pinkerton, his status in the department, listening to Lisa, empathy? Her gradual revelation, her father not permitting the hypnosis, the revelation that h was not her father, his abuse, his arrest? The grandmother sitting alone?
- The developments, Lisa and her memories, the details, what she saw under the poorly fitting blindfold? The sketch? Informing about the fingerprints? The important driving, her memories, finding the area, the tree?
- The other detectives, seeing the abductor, the photo in the car, the car details, eventually arresting him? His admitting his guilt, saying there was something wrong with him?
- Lisa, reunited with her sister, her sympathetic uncle and aunt? Her 18th birthday?
- Lisa, as witness, helping to solve the case? And her subsequent life and career?
