While there was an earnest attempt on the part of the filmmakers to depict the psychological mindset of the Stockholm syndrome in a child held captive in a kidnapper's basement for years, this disturbing film raised too many questions about the plausibility of the situations depicted.
As an infant, Leanne Dargen was kidnapped in a local park by Ben McKay, who raised the child on his own. She was renamed "Leia," and the kidnapper drilled it into the child that he had "rescued" her. For years she was confined in isolation in a basement. When she finally was saved by the authorities years later, she completely identified with her captor. In short, Leia was welded to Ben.
When the young woman is returned to the custody of her birth parents, it is not surprising that the twenty-two-year-old finds it difficult to adapt. She recognizes that Ben never allowed her to do anything on her own, and she was inculcated with an apocalyptic vision leading her to believe that the old world had ended and places like Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon no longer exist.
In a traumatized, zombie-like state, Leanne should have been placed in an intensive recovery program. In the film, it made no sense that she apparently was only assigned weekly therapy sessions with the psychiatrist, Dr. Dana Andrews. It was even more implausible that with such a publicized case, the prison administration where Ben McKay was being held would permit a personal visitation with Leanne!
The major dramatic choice made by the filmmakers was in the actions of Leanne's mother Marcy to adopt the same brutal conditioning tactics as the kidnapper, locking Leanne in her room and regimenting her life like a prisoner. Marcy should have taken her daughter on trips to Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon. From Leanne's perspective, Ben was simply replaced by Marcy as her overlord.
In one of the most ghoulish moments of the film, it is revealed that allotments of water are given her daughter at specified times of the day. While Marcy had apparently read some books on the Stockholm syndrome, the books certainly would not have promoted the forced, abusive treatment of such a fragile psyche as Leanne's.
Despite the excellent performances, "Stockholm, Pennsylvania" was never credible as a case study in which the original treatment of Leanne by the kidnapper was made to seem more humane than that of the birth mother. The 5-star rating above is a generous one.
As an infant, Leanne Dargen was kidnapped in a local park by Ben McKay, who raised the child on his own. She was renamed "Leia," and the kidnapper drilled it into the child that he had "rescued" her. For years she was confined in isolation in a basement. When she finally was saved by the authorities years later, she completely identified with her captor. In short, Leia was welded to Ben.
When the young woman is returned to the custody of her birth parents, it is not surprising that the twenty-two-year-old finds it difficult to adapt. She recognizes that Ben never allowed her to do anything on her own, and she was inculcated with an apocalyptic vision leading her to believe that the old world had ended and places like Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon no longer exist.
In a traumatized, zombie-like state, Leanne should have been placed in an intensive recovery program. In the film, it made no sense that she apparently was only assigned weekly therapy sessions with the psychiatrist, Dr. Dana Andrews. It was even more implausible that with such a publicized case, the prison administration where Ben McKay was being held would permit a personal visitation with Leanne!
The major dramatic choice made by the filmmakers was in the actions of Leanne's mother Marcy to adopt the same brutal conditioning tactics as the kidnapper, locking Leanne in her room and regimenting her life like a prisoner. Marcy should have taken her daughter on trips to Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon. From Leanne's perspective, Ben was simply replaced by Marcy as her overlord.
In one of the most ghoulish moments of the film, it is revealed that allotments of water are given her daughter at specified times of the day. While Marcy had apparently read some books on the Stockholm syndrome, the books certainly would not have promoted the forced, abusive treatment of such a fragile psyche as Leanne's.
Despite the excellent performances, "Stockholm, Pennsylvania" was never credible as a case study in which the original treatment of Leanne by the kidnapper was made to seem more humane than that of the birth mother. The 5-star rating above is a generous one.