The Captive

It's Fargo meets The Pledge. It's a really well-constructed abduction thriller. Ryan Reynolds is solid and watchable. Scott Speedman is needlessly intense, nevertheless good. Mireille Enos is brilliant. Ryan Reynolds really needs to make more movies like this and Buried instead of making crap like Green Lantern and RIPD. Those do nothing for his career, but these thrillers and dramatic pieces show off his strengths much more.

This film has one creepy-ass abductor, who pretty much epitomises what we think of when we hear the word "paedophile". Great casting. The cinematography is something I appreciated about The Captive, and although on my copy the sound was very quiet, I feel the score was also poignant.

B+

This was pretty much shit. I usually like Kevin Durand but he wasn't convincing for a second to me and totally took me out of the movie every time he was there. Just terrible acting. Reynolds and the others did better but no one deserves more than a solid. The movie startet out quite intense but got worse as it went on.

What a weird movie. The bizarre narrative structure makes this feel needlessly jumbled. No wonder this wasn't given a proper theatrical release despite a strong cast. It's not all bad. It does look nice, which is no surprise as most Egoyan films do. It's not really boring. Performances are good. It's just put together in a rather off-putting way and the end feels tacked on.

6/10 (C+)