“I believe the common character of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility, and murder,” says Werner Herzog in Grizzly Man. Natalee Holloway’s parents didn’t think of this sentiment when they let her go on a school sponsored graduation trip to harmonious Aruba. They only saw a tropical paradise with school chaperones to keep an eye on their teenage daughter. They couldn’t spot any evil lurking in the sunny photos on the travel brochure. They didn’t realize they were signing away their daughter to a real-life horror film about what can go extremely wrong on a foreign vacation. Natalee Holloway is a Lifetime movie that attempts to give domestic insight into the international case that’s still a mystery.
Mom (Family Ties’ Tracy Pollan) is a protective mother to Natalee (Amy Gumenick). She warns Natalee about what can happen if she gets drunk around boys. The stepfather (Swingtown’s Grant Show sans mustache) lets mom handle the heavy work of child raising. Even though it’s an expensive trip, mom decides to send Natalee to Aruba with her friends. This turns out to be the worst mistake of her life. The island has a legal drinking age of 18. This means the girls spend most of their time getting smashed on big fruity drinks. They hang out at a disco getting bodyshots with the local boys. On the final night Natalee hooks up with Joran van der Sloot (Jacques Strydom). The last her classmates see of her is in a car with Paul and his buddies heading back to the hotel. The next morning, nobody can find Natalee. Her parents fly down to begin the search.
Problems start right way when the mom learns of the law on Aruba. They won’t really question Paul. The cops merely let him say he dropped her off at the hotel and an employee took the drunk girl inside. The law won’t even secure his car to search for evidence. His father is a bigwig so the local cops take it easy. The parents’ search is a nightmare as they peel back layers of this vacation paradise to expose nastiness. There’s no real signs of where her daughter went. When they finally get the law on Joran, he comes up with numerous stories. He claims she died on the beach and he merely dumped the body. Was she killed or sold into a slavery like the daughter in Taken? Did she just want to run away from home and go native? The fate of Natalee is still a mystery with rumors swirling and no convictions.
Natalee Holloway has the over the top emotions required of a Lifetime movie. Nobody plays this as subtle theater. Pollan has that “gimme back my daughter” grit. The heart of the film is a warning about the fate of drunk girls in foreign countries. If you’re a parent of a teen begging for money to go on a school trip to a tropical paradise, you’ll be less forthcoming with a plane ticket after reviewing the fate of Natalee. Sometimes a tourist trap wants to capture more than your wallet.
The video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The transfer has this glow that comes from the fact that they shot this in Capetown, South Africa. The audio is Dolby Digital 5.1. The levels are sharp enough to capture the mother’s frustrated sighs as she gets the runaround. The subtitles are in English and French.
Remembering Natalee (9:16) has Beth Holloway Twitty, cast and crew talk about the movie and the real life mystery. There’s a warning from the real mother about dealing with the laws in foreign countries.
Natalee Holloway does a fine job in scaring parents from ever letting their kids fly off on school trips to island resorts that serve booze. It hits all the right scare buttons with its warning to young ladies about the dangers of getting drunk and partying with island boys. After watching this, most mothers will only permit their kids to vacation in the backyard. The film is frustrating in the lack of closure, but unfortunately such is the fate of Natalee.
Sony Picture Home Entertainment presents Natalee Holloway. Directed by: Mikael Saloman. Starring: Tracy Pollan, Grant Show, Amy Gumenick and Sean Cameron Michael. Written by: Teena Booth. Running time: 87 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Released on DVD: November 10, 2009. Available at Amazon.com
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