Tonight at 9:00 pm ET, Lifetime premieres its latest movie about the Natalee Holloway story called JUSTICE FOR NATALEE HOLLOWAY. I had the opportunity to watch the movie in advance and I am still on the fence as to whether I liked it or not.
First, the movie is entirely too long. Although it clocks in at the usual two hours (with commercials), after the first twenty minutes or so, I began to think it was dragging. That is never good. Second, the story tells us everything we already know. This was somewhat of a problem with Lifetime’s first movie about Natalee Holloway, but at least the writers opted to provide some alternate theories as to what could have occurred. This time everything is exactly as it played out in the media with little room for creative story lines and actually no justice at all for Natalee.
Justice for Natalee Holloway picks up four years after Natalee Holloway’s disappearance and explores just how much this has affected and changed Beth Twitty, Natalee’s mother. The movie brings back Tracy Pollan as Beth Twitty and Grant Show as George “Jug” Twitty, familiar faces that automatically bring the viewer right back into the story. Unfortunately, despite newer events, nothing much has changed. Despite the title, there is still no justice for Natalee and still no answers for Beth. Perhaps the movie felt like it was dragging so much because it was so painful to watch Beth continue to find some hope only to have it squashed in the next instance. Then when she is finally able to somewhat move on, the fifth anniversary happens and she again abandons herself to revert right back to the greiving, angry mother again. That is not to say she has no right or that her feelings are inappropriate. To the contary, that is to be expected, however, it is still painful to watch.
The movie does a good job of showing contrasting views of one person living their life at the same time as another. For example, there will be dual shots of Joran getting off a plan at the same time Beth gets off a plane, each on entirely different missions. I found that to be the most interesting part, to see how events coincided with each other. Also, although, I have followed this story all along, with each passing year, less is said about subsequent events. The movie, however, showed exactly how everything happened including Joran Van der Sloot’s multiple offers to reveal what happened to Natalee, but only for money, and never truthful. I was also unaware of what happened between Beth and Jug.
The final say? If you are someone that has been invested in this story from the start, you might want to tune in as a follow up to the last major telling of the story. However, having said that, you will also know exactly what happens. If you are like me and that doesn’t really matter, then tune in to Justice for Natalee Holloway tonight at 9 pm ET on Lifetime. For those of you that do not know what happened since Beth Twitty left Aruba five years ago, it is worth the viewing to catch you up.
What I would really like to know is what you thought of the Justice for Natalee Holloway movie. After you watch it, come back here and tell me what you thought. Was it a good follow up movie? Did it tie up loose ends? Will there ever truly be justice for Natalee and peace for Beth? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.