If you had said the major flaw was they didn't attempt to match DNA (in its early stages in 1996, but around) then you might have something. But....
1-The son was not a teenager. He was a college graduate. He went to restaurant (Hospitality) school, remember? So he's approx 21-22 years old, an adult old enough to identify a body.
2-When Alan is picked up in Tucson, it's a while later. Days or possibly weeks, it's never specified. But he had found clothes and how to get food at a shelter. The managers at the food kitchen said that they had seen him around a while and the psychiatrist noted that his head injury was healing. When the police picked him up, he's dirty and dressed as a bum. Narrow-minded, yes. But there's no reason to assume he's anything but a bum/drunk/schizophrenic. Besides, he never mentioned he woke up in a puddle bleeding from the head. And if Alan had stayed in the hospital instead of breaking out and given the doctor a chance to examine him, they just might have come to a different conclusion.
3-The friend told the wife. He said the man ran off quickly. What else was the friend supposed to do? Chase him down? Officially, Alan was identified as dead and had been buried. If Alan's family wanted to pursue the possibility of his still being alive - on the basis of one quick glance, it was up to them.
4-His father was dead. All evidence pointed to it. He went along with his mom's "investigations" but they went nowhere. Everyone who met Alan Grey said it couldn't be her husband (that was patently unrealistic, espeically from a cop trained to look at people's features). The mother and son had also searched for and found several Alan Greys - one on life support - none was theirs. So the son validly felt she was "wishful thinking."
5-I don't remember exactly when the Pam Dawber character she said this, but if it was before they knew who he was, then she's right. They had no way of knowing who he was or really where to start looking. (Approx 200+ million people in 1996 and 50 states and he remembered nothing.) He (and thus she) had to move forward. However, I did find it annoying that she wanted to ignore his past when they found out who he was and that he had a wife and kids. That was very selfish.
Yeah, Lifetime broadcasts a lot of "drivel" and this movie wasn't the greatest, but the "flaws" you pointed out aren't. Perhaps, if you hadn't changed the channel and paid closer attention to the details these wouldn't have seemed so "stupid".
Oh, and people should be taught how to think "logically" and "intelligently" in school or by parents at home.
Relying on TV and film to teach "dumbs down" America.
It's not the responsibility of screenwriters to teach anything, but to entertain. The exception might be if a documentary is being written. And even then, their job is to provide information, not teach "how to think."
"Professionals built the Titanic. Amateurs built the Ark."
Helen Hannah
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