krice23 Review of The Captive

The Captive (I) (2014)

Overall great film with a couple of fleshing out opportunities

[9/10 · 1 August 2020]

I am not going to take up any time writing about the plot of the movie. Other re Jews have gone into great detail so I don't feel it's necessary. What I will write about a couple of observations. The acting was very well performed. I sometimes wonder if I've watched the same movie and performances as some other reviewers who saw it and rated it completely differently! I believe one even referred to Reynolds performance as "wooden"!? Really? I thought his every word and action were entirely out of grief and guilt, and don't know how it could be viewed any other way. He was a father, destroyed! I enjoyed the film and felt it had suspense enough for even a Hitchcock fan. While I am not a particular fan of the flashback, it has its place. This film didn't seem to benefit from its use, however, and It's possible it only confused some. The only two complaints I have are that I did feel there could have been more work done to flesh out the connections, and fill in the gaps. When they were allowed to meet, Cassie said it wouldn't have mattered whether or not Matthew had left her alone in the truck for those few short minutes because she was being watched, and they just would have grabbed her another time. But the question remains unanswered, who are these people? How is the man arrested for trying to meet up with whom he assumed to be a young girl connected to Cassie's guard? We see them at prison visitation together, so we know there Is one, they just don't fill us in on what it is. And how are either of them connected to the woman who drugged, kidnapped, and delivered the detective to the guard? There were a few other plot holes, but again, for me the only ones of real relevance were the connections between the bad guys. This is a good movie, and if you don't dwell on the content of other reviews before watching it, you should enjoy it without any real problems. This is a very current topic, and I'm glad to see it's being used to illuminate these crimes for the public at large!