FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

jbsreading I love this movie because it's about a brave mother risking her life to save her daughter. Where it takes place and who the foes are is secondary to me. Just as "The Handmaid's Tale" shows the dangers of a fundamentalist Old Testament Christian society where women have no rights, "Not Without My Daughter" tells of a similar society that happened to actually exist in Iran when this real life story took place. Imagine leaving your comfortable rights-filled home and being thrust into a country where your gender has zero rights, and to boot, you don't know the language and are totally unfamiliar with the culture or language, or religion. Oh, and you and your daughter are prisoners. This is Betty's own, personal, terrifying story. She encountered people who were hostile and seemed scary, or who were at least afraid to communicate with or help her. She was in a small, foreign environment. Hopefully people are intelligent enough not to make assumptions about an entire country of people but we also shouldn't ask a survivor to alter her terrorizing experience because we find it offensive. It IS scary that women and girls had no rights in Iran and that were prisoners. Of course, Americans in this situation would experience this very, very differently than those girls born there into loving families or who visited at a kinder and gentler time in Iran's history. Let's honor this heroic woman and her daughter, their story, while understanding that someone else could have an entirely different story and perspective coming out of Iran or any other Muslim country.

paulclaassen Wow, this was an eye-opener. Really good script with a solid performance by Alfred Molina. I didn't find Sally Field strong enough for the role, although she wasn't all that bad either. I was so anxious during some scenes rooting for Betty (Sally Field) hoping she can finally escape. Based on a true story, it is nerve wrecking to think there are women trapped in similar situations, and how horrible it must be for them coming from a free world. I thoroughly enjoyed this film.

Scott Amundsen The story told in NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER is a straightforward tale of an abusive man who traps his wife and daughter in a place from which there is no escape unless the wife agrees to go home by herself. Which naturally she refuses to do.I read the book; there was nothing in it to make me doubt Betty Mahmoody's story one iota. Those of you who are screaming "bigotry, racism, and lies" would do well to look inside your own hearts because I suspect there's plenty of duplicity in there.Sally Field delivers her usual powerhouse performance as the mother and Alfred Molina is surprisingly sympathetic as her husband. He's abusive, yes, but he is also a man caught between two completely different value systems and in the end one can't help but empathize with his inability to reconcile his love for his wife and daughter (read the book; there was plenty of love there in the beginning) and the loyalty he cannot help but feel towards his family in Tehran."People! Take your meds!" ~ Judge Elizabeth Donnelly (Judith Light), "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit;" episode titled "Zebras."

wes-connors "Betty (Sally Field) has come to the Middle East (Iran) with her daughter and native-born husband (Alfred Molina) for a visit with his family. But soon the horrible truth about their 'vacation' surfaces. Betty's husband doesn't intend to bring his family back to America... ever. She may return, he says, but their daughter must stay. In a hostile, war-torn country, where even the slightest misstep can mean death, she makes a desperate bid to escape with her child," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.This Iranian husband, who reads newspapers at work printed in his own language, doesn't know how much his country has changed? What on EARTH did Ms. Field's character see in this psychopath? Did they cut the scene where someone deposits a giant pea-pod in his Iranian backyard? The relationship between the two principles is totally unbelievable, with Mr. Molina faring the worse. One wonders what "American" citizens thought of Iranian immigrants after watching this film in 1991. But, it plays (as a monster "moody").**** Not Without My Daughter (1/11/91) Brian Gilbert ~ Sally Field, Alfred Molina, Sheila Rosenthal