The Captive proves to be a deeply disturbing experience, tackling the stomach churning subject of paedophilia and its resulting organisations/rings. Director Atom Egoyan has accompanied clever scriptwriting with a stellar cast, ensuring a continually spine tingling undercurrent throughout, which no doubt has cemented the film’s contention for the Palme d’Or award at Cannes Film Festival this year.
The storyline revolves around a simple but uncomfortably close to home premise, echoed in films such as Taken. Matthew (Ryan Reynolds) and Tina Lane (Mireille Enos) are the doting parents of only child Cassandra (Alexia Fast/Peyton Kennedy), a bubbly nine year old who dreams of becoming a professional ice skater. Their cosy lives are shattered when Cassandra is kidnapped from the back seat of her father’s jeep, during a quick stop to grab some takeaway. The ensuing eight years turn into a hellish nightmare for the couple, as they search in hope for the safe return of their daughter. A specialist unit headed by Nicole Dunlop (Rosario Dawson), is brought on to the case, along with newly recruited Deputy Jeffrey Cornwall (Scott Speedman). Cornwall and Dunlop have their own demons, which have steered them to their line of work and are quick to stamp Matthew as a lead suspect. An accumulation of blame, guilt and suspicion threaten to deteriorate Matthew and Tina’s relationship, but their woes are dwarfed by the slow realisation of the horror of what their daughter has been through.
Egoyan cleverly leverages off third person perspective in this film, the audience are aware and emotionally invested from the get go and may find themselves shocked that Matthew, who from the police’s perspective has no eye witnesses to the incident, is immediately deemed guilty. A hot-headed Cornwall only aggravates things with his blatant pot stirring, making his interactions with Matthew quite violent. Cornwall’s back story only hints at his own potentially abusive childhood and his sudden change of heart towards Matthew near the end of the film isn’t completely explained.
Praise must go to Kevin Durand for his sickening and utterly plausible portrayal of a silently unhinged Mika, Cassandra’s kidnapper. Durand executes Mika’s debonair, well-spoken mannerisms with a slight feeling of unease that is both unsettling and admirable. Alexia Fast also gives a captivating performance as a mature, outwardly stable Cassandra who’s glimmer of intelligence comes out in her manipulation of Mika. Reynolds struggles to sell the paternal role, although there are a couple of extremely powerful scenes which really solidify his acting abilities. The same sentiment goes for Enos who seemed short changed, Tina comes across as unaware and a bit pathetic, this could be misplaced denial, but her character was confusing and infuriating at the best of times.
Note this film tackles difficult subject matter and is not for the faint of heart, it’s intense without being openly graphic which is its saving grace and is quite in depth about the lengths specialist units go to, to catch criminals. A lot of the horrifying elements to The Captive come through insight into how operations work, including recruitment of children to bait and draw in other children, as well as officers impersonating children online to reel in predators. There’s an emphasis on rapidly advancing technologies which serve as a fortress for rings operating online, an unfortunate and saddening fact.
Scenes are paced quite well, considering the time lapse – wisely not dwelling on irrelevant details – the plot’s turning point is unexpected with a conclusion that cleverly convinces the audience that it is unreachable until the last moment. The intensity and drama to The Captive draws on some very powerful performances with underlying circumstances that highlight the very real threat and consequence of the worst parts of human nature and more importantly the everlasting effects on the victims and their families.
Review Score: THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
The Captive is out in Australian cinemas on November 20th.
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