Girl in Room 13 Review: Anne Heche Performs at the Highest Pitch in One of Her Final Roles
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Ryan Plummer/A+E Networks/Lifetime
When actress Anne Heche died last month at the age of 53, there was a sense that she'd deserved greater and more consistent success in Hollywood.
She had a petite sharpness, something but not quite like Holly Hunter's, and the suggestion of an intelligence and spirit that were restless and not easily tamed. She never stopped working, though, and left behind several not-yet-seen productions. One of these, the movie Girl in Room 13, premieres tonight on Lifetime.
Directed by Elisabeth Röhm, Room 13 is an earnest, no-frills drama that addresses the American underbelly of sex trafficking, a shadowy entrepreneurial network that, we're told in an onscreen note at the end, depends on "the assistance of the hospitality industry, the banking system to launder money, the transportation industry and internet platforms to recruit and advertise their victims." The film's subject matter, in fact, triggered social media conspiracy speculation that Room 13 had something to do with Jeffrey Epstein, and that this connection was responsible for the fiery car accident that caused Heche's death.
Such is our world. But no: Room 13 is about a New Jersey suburban family in crisis.
Ryan Plummer/A+E Networks/Lifetime
Heche plays Janie, whose daughter Grace (Larissa Dias) has just come home after the latest of multiple stints in rehab — she became addicted to opioids as treatment for a sports injury. "I get a little bit concerned that I'm looking after her too much," Janie tells her husband (Matt Hamilton). "I'm afraid of her relapsing."
But Grace's only mistake turns out to be that she's too trusting: She meets up with Richie (Max Montesi), a drug dealer with whom she'd apparently had a relationship, to give him money he says he needs to pay for his little son's hospital bill. It's all a ruse: Richie — a lunkhead whose villainous ambitions make his stupidity even more dangerous — kidnaps Grace, stashes her in a motel room and begins drugging her, prepping her to be sold on the sex-traffic market.
RELATED: Anne Heche Was a 'Hero' for Victims of Violence, Says Girl in Room 13 Director Elisabeth Röhm
Meanwhile, everyone who has known Grace is resigned to her disappearance: She's probably using drugs again — what can be done? Janie, though, is convinced that something awful has happened, and fights with the police and even her husband, urging them to take action to find Grace. Day by day, hour by hour, Janie grows more hectoring, angry and frantic.
This is a big role for Heche, and also a punishing one, requiring her to perform at what seems to be the highest pitch, and then somehow higher than that. But beneath that is the sturdy, steady power of maternal love — Heche gives us that, too.
Girl in Room 13 premieres tonight on Lifetime at 8 p.m. ET.
