The Captive (2014) Reviews

• Good Movie

  pgeorge112014-09-21

  This is the last time I take into consideration negative reviews + a low rating. I was very undecided about going to see this movie due to this bad habit of reading reviews on IMDb. It is not the first time a low rated movie turns out to be great, but it is certainly the greatest contrast between reviews and the actual movie. This just proves that most users are probably persons who don't understand a well constructed narrative and don't have an eye for beautiful cinematography. Ryan Reynolds does a great job and so do his co-stars. I also admire Mr. Atom Egoyan for writing, directing and producing this movie. It is a good movie. Go watch it and don't let the rating create low expectations. Hopefully it will exceed the current 5.8.

  More

• The film's opening scenes promise a much richer film than what's delivered

  Likes_Ninjas902014-12-06

  The Captive's two best qualities are its snowy setting and Ryan Reynolds' lead performance. Otherwise, the film is an overlong and jumbled thriller, whose gimmicky structure fails to hide how far- fetched and formulaic the thriller component is once linear. The film's director Atom Egoyan has made many poorly received films recently, including Devil's Knot and now this feature, which was booed at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Egoyan is Egyptian-born with Armenian parents but was raised in Canada. He has set this film in Niagara Falls but it was primarily shot in Sudbury, Ontario. It's an icy cold, wintery location, the barrenness of which projects the loneliness and sense of loss Egoyan has tried evoking in the narrative's themes. It is a unique setting, one which required special measures for shooting by the film's crew, and makes the film's opening scenes promise a much richer film than what's delivered. The film is about the kidnapping of Cass (Peyton Kennedy), a young girl who was sitting in her father's car when he went into a store but came back to find her missing. The father is Matthew (Reynolds), who continues searching for his daughter nine years after she has vanished and in spite of his relationship with his wife Tina (Mireille Enos) breaking down. The film switches between Matthew's current pursuit and the start of the investigation, instigated by two detectives. Nicole (Rosario Dawson) is a senior detective specialising in the Child Exploitation Unit and hunting down online predators and child pornography rings. She keeps in contact over the years with Tina and is partnered on the case with Jeffrey (Scott Speedman), a rookie to this department, fearless in stirring suspects and getting under their skin. He tries making a suspect of Matthew and also develops a relationship with Nicole. Meanwhile, there are strange scenes where Cass (now played by Alexia Fast) is grown up and still alive in the home of her captor Mika (Kevin Durand). Rather than using her for sexual pleasure, she is encouraged to read poetry and listen to classical music and become bait for other children online. The film begins well, not only because of the setting, but because of the quality of Ryan Reynolds' performance. It is a change in pace and tone, which he signposted with his strong work in the film Buried. His distraught, frustrated emotions, particularly with the way he is treated by the police, are believably conceived but he is the cast's only standout. The film also drifts away from him with the plot and changes in perspective. The plot structure shuffles back and forth so frequently between time periods, with little warning, and for no reason other than to disguise how this is a highly formulaic thriller. The film's pacing is crippled by this editing technique, dragging the film even though it is less than two hours long, and any tension is dissolved. Egoyan has said he is celebrating the human spirit, but his ideas about being drawn into the search as much as being devastated by it don't come to fruition or feel transcendent. The search isn't very different from other kidnapping films like Ransom or The Changeling, where parents never give up on their lost children. It is not even a plausible or authenticated crime film. Egoyan has said he did not want to show any explicit material because it is more unsettling not seeing it but imagining it. The difficulty of dealing with the material is understandable, especially from a commercial standpoint. But the compromise he has made is substituting explicitness for ridiculous plot points and developments. The most absurd episodes of his overcrowded screenplay are shared between its voyeuristic components, like the criminals monitoring Cass's mother with hidden surveillance equipment, and also a second kidnapping when the criminals target Nicole herself. It is a very strange and forgettable thriller, which shows how difficult it is dealing with a troubling subject matter while remaining within the frame of the kidnapping subgenre.

  More

• Boy, this is Bad

  reddperc2014-12-20

  It should be a telling indicator when a movie studio releases a movie online the same time they release it in the theaters. It means the studio knows it's a bomb, and is going to try and get the most money they can out of it, through all mediums, before the negative reviews take hold. Well, it worked, and they got my $5.99. Ugh. Movie has the potential to be something gripping, but instead it just slugs along. In other films, showing scenes out of sequence is done for specific impact or effect. Here it's done as a gimmick - "Hey, how about we show this part here, and then just for the hell of it, show an earlier part next, and then something from the middle after that..." Give me a break. It serves absolutely no purpose, and only further confuses, frustrates, and angers the audience. Some of the acting is well done, but it's not enough. The creepy child abductor character is practically wearing a "creepy child abductor" Halloween mask, and yet he shuffles through this entire movie with nobody suspecting a thing. The relationship between the male/female detective leads is awkward, and never fully explained. The secondary members of the detective team are introduced with specific "gifts", only to be essentially never seen again (never mind showing how their "gifts" are relevant to the story). I've never written a review here before, but this is such a clunker, I just couldn't help myself. I cringe as some others are comparing this to Hitchcock. Lord, have ya seen Hitchcock? Cause this crap ain't even close.

  More

• Had major potential, then fell short. Fast.

  vonnahwill2015-02-05

  Naturally, I was intrigued by "The Captive", great plot and amazing actors, what could possibly go wrong? From the start, I could tell this movie was going to have a ton of flashbacks, which is fine, until those flashbacks kinda become irrelevant because the viewer has no idea which flashback comes first. Strike 1. The introduction of Scott Speedman was a treat, until he was a bit weird acting and since that was never explained, I guess that was just his character?.. Then the part where Ryan Reynolds character has an abusive past was brought up (in reference to plot), then was never to be heard of again. Strike 2. Still don't know much about the wife's character. Strike 3. No explanation about the relationship of the two detectives (Dawson & Speedman) but since Dawson seemed to have a picture of Speedman's niece in her office, it's to be assumed they're in a relationship. OK. And for the focus to be the family of the missing girl, I feel it rarely focused on them. Strike 4. This movie just needed a lot of tweaking. Starting with some back story of the characters at the beginning. And less flashbacks. More explanations. And more focus on how the unit was actually working towards finding the missing child.

  More

• Just didn't make much sense.. no flow!

  eursula-hicks2015-05-30

  I don't usually write reviews (and I watch a lot and read many reviews) but felt compelled to write one about this movie. I was just so surprised at how badly this movie was put together. The time frame jumps all over the place, from present day to back at the time of the abduction, then a few periods in between. To the point that it was quite confusing for the viewer to watch. There's nothing to really tell you which time line you're in when it jumps. When the abduction first happened, the police immediately suspect the father, which OK yes might happen in reality but to the point that it was done seemed really over the top. It didn't even look like the police treated it as a crime, no prints etc were taken from the car. The mother instantly hated and blamed the father for it happening. As if a simple act of popping into a store to get a pie for dessert was unheard of.. All these types of accusations against the father felt like they came out of no where, like the audience wasn't given enough information. Then all of a sudden they are talking to the abducted girl via web cam. Like, how did they even get to that point? Cut to when they finally get some evidence on the abductors, they trace a GPS signal from the phone planted by the father on the car, then cut to the next scene and the cops are all of a sudden at the house and a shot is fired and its all over?! Worst anti climax ever! Then with the cop still in the van, what ever happened to her?! We never find out. I hope this doesn't mean there is a sequel. So many things didn't add up or were confusing and disconnected. I felt like it was edited all wrong. Better luck next time perhaps. It started off promising but in the end failed.

  More