Stolen Identity

Kellie Martin plays a girl who sees her face (a baby photo) on the back of a milk carton, and finds out about her mysterious past. It's a good movie, but the book series by Caroline Cooney is much better. They are more mysterious with more attention paid to detail. Of course, they had to cram in two books' worth of material into an hour and a half movie. And for some reason, the characters' names are different in the movie than in the books and some characters are changed or left out altogether. It's good time filler, with strong performances by Kellie Martin, Sharon Lawrence and Jill Clayburgh especially.

I may be a bit biased, since the book has always been one of my favorites, but many little descrepencies between the book and movie bugged me. Although Kellie Martin is a great actress, she was way too old to be Janie! She was 20, whereas Janie is supposed to be barely 16! Reese is supposed to be older, more mature, and he looks 3 years younger! Especially since it had to be packed into two hours, everything was rushed, and neither set of parents' characters were developed, nor did the relationship between Janie and Reese seem believable.

I don't think there was enough background in the family relationships to make it a tear-jerker, but over-all, despite the little mistakes, it was a good TV movie. 7/10

I saw this on Lifetime sometime after it had originally aired and it dawned on me on whether or not this girl's decision would have been as difficult had this been about a girl who had been adopted and then had found her birth parents. It also could have been a much different flick if she had appeared to the Sands (her biological parents) after having been married and expecting. Kellie Martin plays an incredible role alledgedly based on a true story and gives a real performance with a lot of emotion than the usual shallow fare seen by so many teenage actors. A lot of credit has to go to the actors portraying the Sands and the Jessmons for providing Kellie a stoic and emotional base to create her role. The story of Solomon's tale of the the mothers is used as a wonderfully inspiring parallel and the dreamy flashbacks of the girl's hazy flashbacks of being kidnapped. This is a wonderful movie to make any parent pull their kids tighter, but watch the hands when you hug your teenage daughter!

You really have to read the book to understand why hair color was so important to this story. The four fiction books are not based on a true story. In the storyline, the unique red hair color was the link that connected Janie to her biological family. The movie was excellent although the movie combined the first two books. There have since been two more stories; a total of four books exist in this series. They are terrific books.

This movie was fantastic! Could have followed the book a little better, but all-in-all, it was a great adaptation. A must see. You might want to watch the movie first then read the books. The sequel was also part of this movie. (Whatever Happened to Janie?) Kellie Martin was fantastic as Janie. I couldn't have picked a better actress for the role.