Here is a review of the movie by David Hinckley of the NY Daily News.
www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2008/08/15/2008-08-15_lifetimes_girl_lost_finds_the_heartstrin.htmlLifetime's 'Girl Lost' finds the heartstrings
Friday, August 15th 2008, 1:41 AM
Judy Reyes (r., with Marlene Forte) is a mother who never gives up hope in story of a child presumed killed in a fire.
You don't have to be a chick-flick fan to grasp the horror of Luz Cuevas' situation in Sunday night's tearjerking and ultimately triumphant Lifetime movie about a mother's lonely determination to find a child everyone else thinks is dead.
"Little Girl Lost" is done entirely by the numbers, but in this case the numbers are compelling enough to make the movie, which is based on a real-life story, worth watching.
Luz (Judy Reyes) and her husband, Pedro (Hector Bustamante), are throwing a party at their Philadelphia apartment to celebrate the birth of their daughter Delimar, now 10 days old.
A fire breaks out. The guests all rush into the street. Luz rushes upstairs to rescue the baby. But when she gets to the baby's room, she can't find her.
As smoke and flames envelop the house, she has to get out, only to find no one outside has seen the baby, either.
Firemen eventually carry a small wrapped bundle from upstairs. Luz and Pedro are told it's the baby's body.
But when she and her husband go to claim it, they are told there were no human remains in the package, just charred mattress fiber. The fire chief tells her the baby must have been incinerated.
Luz thinks otherwise. She thinks someone stole the baby and set the fire to cover up the kidnapping.
Only thing is, no one believes her. They think she is crazy with grief. Friends slip away. Pedro leaves.
Years pass. Her faith remains, but what can she do?
Then one night, by chance, she is invited to a party where she sees a woman named Valerie (Ana Ortiz from "Ugly Betty"), who was at her house the night of the fire. Valerie has a daughter just about the age Delimar would be.
You can guess the rest. The final drama plays out like the earlier drama - predictable, systematic, but, in terms of the story and the justice viewers fervently wish for Luz, satisfying.
Reyes, who is almost a one-woman act for much of the movie, flexes a serious, frustrated, heartbroken side she doesn't get to show much as Carla on "Scrubs." Ortiz is good, but like most of the other performers, including Bustamante, her role doesn't call for much dimension.
Everyone plays off Reyes, without a lot of attention to their own conflicts, and for the purposes of "Little Girl Lost," that's logical. It's framed as a story of a mother's faith, and for everyone who believes in that power, it's an uplifting tale of vindication.
Pedro's story, or Delimar's, can be told another day.
dhinckley@nydailynews.com
ETA: If any of you are at home today it is on at 12PM. I just found out!