Cue hankies for the return of Sally Field, with plenty to cry about in this first but, be assured, not the last in Hollywood's new Towelhead Terror genre. Field plays Betty Mahmoody, a real life American wife who went for hols with her husband and daughter in Eye-ran, as the Yanks would have it, and found herself held hostage in an 18-month nightmare.
Call me naive, but although Mahmoody's ordeal was undoubtedly appalling, this interminable rendering of her plight and desperate escape bids is as black and white as Sun-style propaganda. Alfred Molina, that well known Iranian thesp, is Moody Mahmoody (honestly), who despite 20 years in America getting to be a doctor so he can live in a swell house and go fishing, yearns for his own folk even though their bathroom isn't nice and the place is crawling with Ayatollah fans. Ten minutes after they de-plane in Tehran Moody flips his lid, re-embraces Islam and tells the missus "Oh, by the way, we're not leaving."
The less-than-thrilled Betty is thus locked up with black-shrouded hags who pick on her when Moody isn't beating her up or uttering pronouncements like "The blessing of Islam is the greatest gift I can give my child" when the kiddie cuts up rough. While not wishing to be facetious about women and children held against their will in any country, this tearjerker is strictly TV movie for a wet Wednesday stuff.