The Captive

As an actor, you have to take chances sometimes. It makes each character harder to connect to, but at the same time it could be important to try new things, so you don´t get stuck in the same genre. Some actors can´t leave their genre completely, like Dolph Lundgren. He knows this, and that is ok, because he is good in doing action films. Hugh Grant is another example, the problem with him is that he is usually not good in the same genre, so when he steps out and do something different, is a good sign. His best performance so far is no doubt in About A Boy. There are so many actors who actually try and develope themselves, trying to find different stories and characters. One of these that should be mentioned is Ryan Reynolds. From the early days of Van Wilder, until he became more serious and surprised us with Chaos Theory in 2007. Of course he have done a lot of different films over the years, and i know some people don´t want to be reminded of Green Lantern. I feel we should mention Buried from 2010, one of my personal favourite films with Ryan Reynolds. This was really a surprise, since he was actually really good, acting in a coffin all by himself. It is also my favourite film from spanish film director Rodrigo Cortez. Ryan Reynolds have continued working on many films over the years, and have 4 films on the way this year, unless some of them are released next year. One of the films i read about lately is The Captive, a indepenent canadian thriller, that was a very different choice from Ryans previous work. The Captive is directed by Atom Egoyan, the man who gave us the excellent erotic thriller Where The Truth Lies, with Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth. Just the knowledge of this combination got me curious, what his next film would be like. Nominated for a Palme d´Or at the Cannes Film Festival 2014, is this a surprisingly good film with Reynolds, or is this a film that will easily be forgotten within a short moment ?

Matthew ( Ryan Reynolds ) is out on the highway, with his daughter Cassandra ( Peyton Kennedy ). They stop at a highway restaurant to buy some pie for take away. When Matthew returns to his car, Cassandra is missing, and there is no trace of where she is. Police detective Nicole ( Rosario Dawson ) begins to investigate the case, where Matthew is seen as a potential suspect. Cassandra´s mother Tina ( Mireille Enos ) blame Matthew for what happened, as the case goes cold. 8 years later, there are traces online that Cassandra might be still alive, as detective Nicole tries to figure out where she could be located, and if she is still alive. Matthew is determined to take justice into his own hands, to show them that he had nothing to do with the disappearance of Cassandra. Was she really abducted, or did something else happened ?

I love to see that director Atom Egoyan tries to do a completely different film than his previous work, since The Captive feels very independent. I like to see smaller films being made, especially if they have something interesting to say. The Captive is nowhere near as good as Where The Truth Lies. But i still see potential here, with Ryan Reynolds doing a very different character than usual. The strength of this film is that it takes place in a smaller town, and you can feel the natural portraits, with some good acting from Mireille Enos ( known from the tv series The Killing ), and Rosario Dawson. The biggest problem is that the story behind the disappearance of Cassandra does not feel very disturbing, as it should feel. That is something David Fincher managed to do better in Gone Girl, where Ben Affleck searches for his lost wife. For those who have seen Gone Girl, might remember how good the last hour was of that film. The Captive does have some good scenens along the way, but the tension we are supposed to feel over the disappearance of a child, does not feel very deep. It is almost as director Atom Egoyan does not dig deep enough into emotions, to make the story feel more simple. This is such a shame, because there is an interesting story to be told, if it was made in the right way. Ryan Reynolds does ok, but i would have wanted him to show even more emotions over what happened to his daughter. There are some scenes that feels interesting, while in other scenes the tension is lost on the way. The Captive is not a bad film, it just missing a lot of important details that should have been fixed before the film was finished. And for that i can only give a low rating, because of these mistakes. Too bad, i was hoping that i would like this film, now i feel more sleepy instead. If you want to see an intensive child abduction film, go and buy Prisoners, a really disturbing motion picture, still so good you wont be able to stop watching.

Rating: DD