Drama based on a true story, starring Barbara Hershey and Rachael Leigh Cook. A woman on holiday in Ecuador is charged with drug smuggling and thrown into a brutal prison. Back in the US her daughter grows increasingly frustrated by the authorities' lack of effort to secure her mother's freedom.
Barbara Hershey gives a strong performance here, as an American mum arrested for allegedly drug trafficking in Ecuador in this biased but unsettling true-life drama. A real tourist's worst nightmare tale, the unsubtle TV movie does all it can to stir up viewer indignation, as Hershey's ailing Sandra Chase is thrown into a seriously hellish prison for 22 months without trial, while daughter Tammi (an unconvincing Rachael Leigh Cook) fights for her release. With a shell-shocked and increasingly ill Sandra subjected to a continual barrage of attacks, thefts and abuse, and Tammi thwarted by corruption at almost every turn, Ecuador's legal system comes in for some severe vilification, making the country and its people look unfairly savage. Yet, despite the one-sided approach and the script's chuck-everything-in button pushing, events often lack the emotional punch they deserve.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Sandra Chase | Barbara Hershey |
| Tammi Chase | Rachael Leigh Cook |
| Nick Sakeris | Vincent Irizarry |
| Alex | Nicholas Gonzalez |
| Congresswoman Brown | Michael Hyatt |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Leon Ichaso |
