Seesaw [DVD]

This is a Strange story I got it because I love David Sushet.......but nothing like Poriot But I,ve seen worse

Not the best role I have seen David Suchet in.

I loved this movie but I don't quite understand the nuances of the ending. Please someone else write in and give your ideas on it.

After watching several of David Suchet's videos, we were disappointed with this one. I am sure that it was the writers that made the difference.

What can I say, the best

This Scottish Television film is a slow one, but the acting is excellent and very realistic, while the storyline is gripping. The teenage daughter of well-off British parents, a rather morose, klutzy, self-conscious and pimply private school girl, is kidnapped. She simply doesn't come home one night, then a ransom note arrives by fax, demanding 500,000 English pounds. The parents decide not to go to the police and pay the ransom. Both parents are played by outstanding BBC actors, David Suchow as the father (Poirrot) and Geraldine James as the mother (Calendar Girls). Both are portrayed as busy professionals who are rather distracted but happy and devoted to their lovely home, garden and three children. Socially, they are also busy, and their children are casual about wealth.All of this is about to change. That ransom money wipes them out and forces the sale of the father's business. The girl is returned and no friend, neighbor, schoolmate or relative is the wiser; they all agree to tell no one and especially not the police. Now in dreary reduced circumstances, the real story of the family begins, as each member gets angry about the big changes.BAD POINTS:I cannot say I loved the film; I found it too long and many conversations drawn out. At 151 minutes, it forces a viewer to begin fast-forwarding, alas! One simply wants to know what happens next, and it happens all in very good slow time.The scenes are almost all indoors, and the shooting is done with low light. All scenes seemed very dark and hard to see, unnecessarily so. If the point was to make the whole atmosphere rather morose, it does do that, but way over the top.The kidnapping couple are good actors but of course despicable and low-class narcissists simply interested in easy money. They're a young unmarried couple, with a determined and jealous and viscious woman as the prime mover and planner. The young fellow goes along with her commands, and to his own confusion and surprise, he falls for the blindfolded and very intelligent kidnapping victim with her strong logical mind. She falls for his male attentions.It is very hard to get any clear feeling about them except a queasy and uneasy dislike. Even when later in the film, the fellow turns out to be "a good guy", one cannot truly relate to either of these slimeballs. Especially the woman in her tarty outfits seems to be absurdly provocative, for no particular reason except to attract male attention everywhere she goes (lingerie outfits with furcoats over them in everyday shops and street scenes????)The kidnapped girl is the focus, as we realize that her own insecurities about her attractiveness bring the film to a new crisis - she sleeps with the kidnapper; he doesn't rape her; she seduces him! And then gets pregnant and keeps the baby!At this point, quite near the end, where she has dropped out of school and is a fulltime single mother in her own flat at 18, the story is completely wrong. One can only imagine that the writer/director had in mind an indictiment of the welfare state's compliance in getting very young women to keep their babies, by offering them a complete free ride as "deserving poor". The parents can hardly pay their own rent, and her aging mother has to get another job to do so, but the daughter is living scot-free!!!Amazing British society... though not much different from American stories especially in our ghettoes.The morals portrayed in this film throughout are those of a very liberal society ready to hand out money to young women willy-nilly. One has to consider that the female kidnapper should have done the easy thing: get herself knocked up, then get everything free, and never have to bother with crime. Either way the unemployed male could get to be a Daddy and therefore redeem himself.

Very powerful story!

Unique and haunting drama about a family in crisis after their oldest daughter is kidnapped. Brilliant mini series.

Love the movie :-)