Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

a_baron This is a film that can't quite make up its mind what it wants to be: crime thriller, personal voyage, psychological drama...but as it is a true story or at least based on one, allowance should be made for that. Only the surname of the principal character has been changed, and as there is no real romance angle, she can't really be called a leading lady.Michelle has had a hard life, but after running away from home and working as an exotic dancer, she lands a job in a bank, and is now managing it, the hard pressed single mother of a daughter, when her life comes crashing down around her ears. Her home is invaded, her daughter tied up and gagged, while she is forced to rob her own bank under threat of being blown to kingdom come. She goes through with it, but although the good news is that the dynamite was not real, the bad news is that she is now less a victim than a suspect.When the gang are caught, the ringleader decides to shift the lion's share of the blame onto her. How bad can it get? Obviously not that bad or the real Michelle would not have written the book of the same title on which this film is based. Don't expect too much from "Held Hostage", but it is certainly watchable.

gavin6942 A woman and her daughter are held hostage because she happens to be the bank manager of a regional branch office for some important bank. After having dynamite strapped to her chest, she is sent in to retrieve the money... but will her co-workers and police believe she is just an innocent bystander? This is the fictionalized version of what really happened to Michelle Renee. How much is accurate, I do not know. Clearly the film is modified from the book, and the book may have been modified from actual events to make them more interesting for people. Certainly, not everything presented happened as depicted.Most obviously, for me, was what I call the "fake defense". I do not believe for a second that the prosecutor or the judge would allow the defense attorney to badger the witness, or pursue the line of questioning he did. Where were the objections? Also, unless you're a really greasy lawyer, you wouldn't pursue a defense that you most likely know to be false.This film is very much like a Lifetime movie, with victimized women becoming strong. Maybe it was from Lifetime, I don't know. I have it on DVD, but it was on TV originally, so Lifetime is as good a place as any for it. Do I recommend this film? In a word, no.

edwagreen Despite an excellent defense by the thief who is obviously guilty, this is basically a film that succeeds because it deals quite well with how a victim is harassed.A woman with a questionable past, who made something of herself, is forced to take money out of a bank by 3 robbers who allegedly tie both her and her daughter with dynamite. Yes, they look like suicide bombers.Despite enduring a horrible experience, when the thieves are found, they turn the tables on our lady and accuse her of plotting the robbery with them. The wife of the major thief goes even further in stating that her husband was romantically involved with her husband.As stated, the film is good because it deals with what victims have to go through as well as the never ending suspicion and even harassment by the police.

boblipton If you're a movie fan you've seen a lot of thrillers. Have you ever wondered how the people cope emotionally afterwards? This movie tries to answer that question. Julie Benz, single mother of a little girl, is a bank manager who is targeted by bank robbers. They break into her home, hold her girl hostage, tape dynamite to her, and send her to grab the bank's money. And after they leave, that's where the movie starts.There are two major problems with this movie that stop it from being more than potentially excellent. The first problem is that the first twenty minutes run out exactly like half a dozen big screen thrillers, but without much in the way of more than adequate camera work. There is nothing to draw you terribly into the movie in the first twenty minutes with its seen-it-all-before techniques. By the time this sequence is finished, I was ready to not like the rest of the movie, and it never gave me much of an incentive to change my mind.The second is that there is no real sense of who Ms. Benz's character, Michelle Estey, actually is. She is never more than a sketch. After spending more than an hour with her -- months from her character's viewpoint -- one should know more.One minor flaw makes this movie even worse: the music score. It is obtrusive, obvious in its direction and annoying.Although HELD HOSTAGE makes an attempt to examine the aftermath of a terrifying situation, its ham-handed handling makes it a poor movie.