This is engrossing. So many twists and turns happened in the Natalee case with arrests and releases etc that it's hard to remember what happened. But this TV movie does a good job in showing what happened in fact and then a few alternate scenarios for her disappearance.Of course now that Joran has been arrested for another murder we may finally know what happened but for the story till then - this is a good introduction.Tracy is good as Beth. She could be annoyingly over dramatic but she isn't. The guy who plays Joran is good too.It's a good warning for teens venturing abroad - Europe / Mexico etc just to make sure they don't trust strangers and have a plan to go home. Get your teen to watch this. Even the most sensible girl can make a mistake.

What an ironic movie. This Natalee Holloway story is just another girl disappearing on a holiday. I never got why everybody was making such a big deal out of it. Why is this case so special? Because really girls disappear everyday and i'm also horrified by it but making a movie about this case is just fishing for money over the heads of unfortunate people.The thing i'm most discussed about is that this movie gives a wrong image about Aruba. Stereotyping the Aruban people in this movie is just unfair. They are portrayed as wrong and bad people and that no one should ever go to the island. The police is being called corrupt and imaged as bandits. Its often said in the movie that ''they'' just don't care and are not trying there best to find Natalee. Quite ironic though, i wonder how many little girls get abused and murdered in the states everyday. Not to talk about teenagers from the states going to Mexico. I'd like to see some movies of those cases.Really this movie doesn't even deserve one star, because the acting and writing are also horrible. Its just a cheap flick made by gold-diggers that try to get more money over the death of an innocent girl, well personally i think it's sick. There's not a lesson to be learned from this movie so i suggest not to even bother.1/10

**SPOILERS** Still making headlines over four years after it happened the disappearance of pretty 18 year-old Alabama high-school graduate Natalee Holloway has become one of biggest missing person mysteries since the disappearance of New York's State Supreme Court Justice Judge Crater back in the summer of 1930.It all happening on the evening of May 29-30, 2005 when Natalee was partying with her fellow high-school graduates at the Carlos'n Charlie's Bar in Orangetown on the island of Aruba where they were spending the Memorial Day Holiday weekend. Getting very friendly with one of the local homeboys Joran Van Der Shoot Natalee had him buy her a drink that Joran, without her knowledge, slipped a Mickey-Finn into that zonked her out and put Natalee on queer street. Together with his two Surinomese friends Deepack & Staish Kalpoe Joran supposedly took a very out of it Natalee in his car for a ride back to her hotel. That was the last time that anyone ever saw Natalee alive again.With Natalee not making her flight back home to Alabama her parents step-dad Jug Twitty and mom Beth flew down to Aruba to find their missing daughter. it's then that the real nightmare began for the Twitty's in not just that their daughter disappeared but may have possibly been kidnapped, and sold into a white slavery ring, but even murdered and deep sixth in the Caribbean Sea in order to hide the body by her killer or killers!As soon as both Beth and Jug arrived on the island they were met with very little cooperation from the island officials that included top cop Det. Frank Sneider. Sneider besides stuffing his face with corn flakes was also a good friend of Natalee's suspected kidnapper or murderer Joran's dad Paul Van Der Shoot. Paul at the time was in line of being appointed a top judge on the island of Aruba. That in fact would not only have him be Sneider's good friend but boss as well! As the frustrated parents got nowhere with the local police, headed by Det. Sneider, in finding their missing daughter Natalee they went public causing a carnival atmosphere of reporters, from MSNBC CNN and FOX, who instead of helping find Natalee were only there to help their own slumping ratting! In them exploiting to the fullest a heart-breaking human interest story more then helping find the victim, Natalee Holloway, of it. It was Natalee's mom Beth who did all she could to find whatever happened to her daughter by going public and demanding the Aruban authorities find her daughter by embarrassing them in how incompetent they were. Still after all this time, four years and counting, there's never been a trace of evidence if Natalee is either alive or dead!At the end of the movie were given an explanation to what really happened to Natalee by non other then her accused kidnapper or murderer Joran Van Der Shoot himself! Not to give away what Joran said, while under the influence of pot, it made about as much as sense, or nonsense, as anything else he said about the incident all throughout the film. The guy-Joran- himself said that even he doesn't believe anything that he says so why should we, the viewers, believe him!As of today Natalee is still considered to be, by the FBI and the Aruban Police, a missing person. Still her concerned parents Jug & Beth Twitty have given up all hope in finding their daughter alive and just want closure so that they can go on with their lives and finally put their daughter Natalee behind them as well as to her eternal rest!

Natalee Holloway (2009)** (out of 4) Lifetime Movie Network produced TV movie tells the story of Beth Twitty (Tracy Pollan) who headed to Aruba after her 18-year-old daughter Natalee went there for a trip and turned up missing. The prime suspect was a local named Joran Van Der Sloot but his changing stories and possible cover ups by the police leaves this case unsolved. I admit to being one of those who heard about this case early on and followed most of it so I really didn't learn anything new by this movie. If you're familiar with the case then this movie isn't going to teach you anything and if you haven't heard of the case then I doubt the movie is going to tell you enough to get a full view of the case. There were many different stories told by the suspects and a couple of them are looked at here but in the end the movie just isn't strong enough to work. I found Pollan to go over the top way too many times and at points in the film she'd become quite annoying. The big prayer sequence was so over acted that I wanted to look away. Some could call this TV acting, which to me is unfair to say but I wasn't impressed. The direction is decent but the screenplay could have used some work. The film tries to tell a big message of being careful when you're overseas but I think it overlooks the biggest flaw in the real story and that's 18-year-old girls shouldn't be given the keys to run wild in a foreign place and getting drunk. The drinking issue is the real message that should have been given off because sadly, this isn't the first girl to get drunk and have something bad happen to her by the hands of a guy.