Taken from me: The
Tiffany Rubin Story is a historical drama (based on a true story) which was
shown on US television (Lifetime Movie Network) in 2011.
Here is some basic
information about it:
** Produced by
Harvey Kahn
** Directed by
Gary Harvey
** Written by
Michael Bortman
** Released on DVD
in 2011
** Run time: 87
minutes
The cast includes
the following:
** Taraji P.
Henson as Tiffany Rubin – a teacher, mother of Kobe
** Terry O’Quinn
as Mark Miller – founder of American Association for Lost Children
** David
Haydn-Jones as Chris – Tiffany’s husband
** Beverly Todd as
Belzora – Tiffany’s mother
** Sean Baek as
Jeff Lee – Tiffany’s ex-boyfriend
** Drew Davis as
Kobe – son of Tiffany and Jeff
** Lucia Walters
as Sophia – a teacher, one of Tiffany’s colleagues
** Alwin Sanders
as Reverend Lewis
** Anthony Shim as
Simon – an exchange teacher in South Korea
I do not wish to
spoil the viewing for anyone. This is why I am not going to say much about what
happens in this drama. I will only tell you how the story begins.
PART ONE
This drama is about
a serious problem:
Parental child
abduction
The story is set
in the US and in South Korea. Tiffany and Chris are married and live in New
York. Tiffany has a son, Kobe, from a previous relationship with Jeff, who is
from South Korea.
Tiffany and Jeff split up shortly after Kobe was born in
2000. Following a court case about custody, Kobe lives with Tiffany, but Jeff can
see his son on some weekends.
In 2007, when Kobe
is seven years old, Jeff tells Tiffany that he wants to take his son on a
holiday to Disney World in Florida.
Tiffany wants Jeff
to have a chance to spend some time with his son, so she agrees to his wish,
even though her mother Belzora objects to this plan. She does not trust Jeff, who
has never paid any alimony for Kobe.
When Tiffany has
not heard anything from Jeff or Kobe for several days, she is worried and goes
to the police, who find out that Jeff has left the US:
He has returned to
his home country, South Korea, and he has taken their son with him. Tiffany is
devastated. Her mother was right, when she said that she did not trust Jeff.
From this moment,
Tiffany has only has one thing on her mind: she must find Kobe and get him back
home.
This is easier
said than done. She contacts the FBI and the State Department.
After a while,
the State Department confirms that Jeff and Kobe are indeed living in Seoul,
the capital of South Korea. But they will not tell her exactly where they are.
They refuse to
share the information they have with Tiffany, even though she is the mother of
the abducted child.
They promise to
contact the South Korean authorities about the case, but they tell her it can
take a long time to process the case, and they cannot promise her a positive
result.
In desperation,
Tiffany contacts a private organisation which is ready to take the case, but
they want money: 100,000 or 200,000 dollars for their services.
Tiffany and Chris are
not poor, but they cannot afford to pay that kind of money.
Tiffany’s mother suggests
another option:
Through her church she has heard about a man called Mark Miller from the
American Association for Lost Children, a Christian charity.
When Tiffany goes
to see him, he tells her that he does not have any experience with South Korea.
But he suggests that she should try to post some information about Kobe on some
websites that might be seen in South Korea.
In the beginning
of 2008, Tiffany receives a call from Simon, an exchange teacher, who works at
a school in Seoul in Korea where he has seen Kobe.
Now Tiffany has
some hard evidence about the case and she wants to go to Korea. When she talks to
Mark Miller about the case, he offers to go with her.
He also tells her
that his organisation is ready to pay for the operation (tickets and hotel
rooms).
This is how the
story begins and this is where my presentation ends.
Perhaps you can
guess how the story ends. Since this drama is based on a true story, the basic details are part of the public record, and you
may know how it ends.
What you do not
know is how the case develops when Tiffany and Mark arrive in Korea, hoping to
find Kobe and hoping to bring him back to the US.
PART TWO
What do reviewers
say about this drama?
Here are some
results:
62 percent = IMDb
76 percent =
Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
On Amazon there
are at the moment more than 1,700 ratings of this product, including more than
200 with reviews.
The average rating
is 4.7 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 94 percent.
I understand the numerous
positive reviews. This is, in many ways, a good drama. It is emotional and heart-breaking.
In addition, it is based on a true story.
How close is the drama
to the true story?
An on-screen
message placed at the end of the drama states:
“Although based on
a true story, some characters portrayed are fictional and certain events in
this motion picture have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes.”
I think I know
which elements are true and which elements were added in order to make the
movie more dramatic, but I cannot be sure.
I am not going to offer
any details about them here, because I do not want to spoil the viewing for
anyone.
But I can say that there are two factual mistakes in this drama. The first one concerns
what is shown, the second one concerns what is said.
# 1. What is shown
When Tiffany
visits the police station in the US, she talks to two police officers, who promise to
find out if Jeff has left the country.
While she is
waiting for them to come back, we can see the room where she is sitting. On the
wall, below the staircase, there is a picture of Barack Obama, who was
president 2009-2017.
But this scene
takes place in 2007, while George W. Bush is president. This is an anachronism. They have the wrong US president on the wall.
How can they know Obama is going to win the presidential election of 2008?
This is, however,
only a brief scene. You may not even notice the wrong picture on the wall,
unless you know it is there.
# 2. What is said
When Tiffany
wants to go to Korea to find Kobe and bring him back to the US, her mother tries to talk
her out of it.
She warns her:
“You could end up
like those two journalists they held, till Bill Clinton went there and got
them.”
Tiffany objects:
“Mom! That was
North Korea!”
But her mother
insists:
“If you get locked
up, Bill Clinton ain’t coming to get you!”
This conversation
is a reference to a case where two US reporters were arrested in North Korea.
When did this happen? They were arrested in March 2009.
Former US
President Bill Clinton paid a private visit to North Korea five months later, in
August 2009, and when he returned to the US, the two reporters were with him.
But the scene in
the drama takes place in the beginning of 2008, which is one year before the
two US reporters were arrested. How could Tiffany and her mother know about this
case one year before it happened?
This is also an anachronism. The writer Michael Bortman got the facts mixed up. The characters in
the drama are talking about an episode that took place in 2009, but the conversation
in the movie is set in 2008.
The script was
probably written in 2010, when the case of the two reporters was still fresh in
Bortman’s memory. This is probably why he decided to use it in his script. Unfortunately,
he forgot to check the dates.
He did not realise
that Tiffany’s trip to Korea took place before the US reporters were arrested,
and before they were released. Not after they were arrested and after they were
released.
It does not take
long to google the facts, but it seems the writer was lazy. He decided to rely
on his memory, which can be dangerous, because your memory of the chronology
may be wrong.
If you are a
screenwriter, you should always be careful and check the facts you want to use
in your script.
CONCLUSION
As stated above,
this is – in many ways – a good drama about a serious problem, but as you can
see, there are some flaws here and there.
I like this drama,
and I want to give it a good rating, but I have to remove one star because of
these flaws.
In my opinion, the
rating on IMDb is too low, while the rating on Amazon is too high.
In my opinion, the
rating on Rotten Tomatoes is very appropriate. This historical drama deserves a
rating of four stars (80 percent).
PS # 1. In the drama, Tiffany’s
ex-boyfriend is called Jeff Lee. As far as I know, his real name is Jeff Salko.
His last name has been changed. Perhaps for legal reasons.
PS # 2. How was the father Jeff able to travel with his son to South Korea? Obviously, Jeff has a passport. He can travel and he can enter South Korea. But how was he able to travel with his son?
Did he get a passport for the son? How was he able to get a passport for his son without the knowledge of his mother? This question is never discussed in the drama.
*****
