Graceland (I) (2012) User Reviews

Kidnapping, but not Kid's Play

[christian94 · 8/10 · 1 August 2012]

Kidnapping has been on the rise and much more organised in the last two decades, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean. I personally have stories of close people being kidnapped in Haiti and Venezuela. Now we are hearing more of India and South Africa, but in 2010, according to the available statistics, the six countries in the world ranked highest for kidnapping for ransom were Colombia, Italy, Lebanon, Peru, the Philippines, and, perhaps surprisingly, the United States! Certainly slightly skewed by Phoenix, AZ, which has become the second kidnapping capital in the world after Mexico City, DF, the concern remains a global one nonetheless.

The topic is not new, but make for potential griping dramatic storyline. We had the effective "Ransom (1996)", the delectable "Gone Baby Gone (2007)" and the steadfast "Taken (2008)" which is set for a sequel this year. "Graceland (2012)" is a marvellous addition to the genre and is surely the best film yet on the topic. It is twisted and almost tedious, until a Usual Suspect-like quality is revealed in the script and sustained by the uncompromising direction.

The beginning and build-up is superb and shocking and the ending puts everything in equally appalling perspective. The middle part lags at times, with less action and suspense than its American counterparts, but instead explores themes of family, class, corruption, extortion, sexual behaviour, suspicion, sickness, trafficking, revenge, redemption, etc. with great wit and repartee.

The acting shines for the victims and the dutiful detective, although the kidnappers' casting may have been on purpose to portray less cunning and calculating individuals. The 84 minutes running time keeps it relatively short and definitely not sweet, leaving you with an awkward after-taste and after-thought as you leave the theatre.

Philippines 2012 | 84 min | HD Tagalog & English language (English subtitles)

Corruption, scandals, poverty. There's no hope left for young generation.

[Reno-Rangan · 8/10 · 14 September 2013]

It was a Filipino captivity thriller-drama. A story of a driver father who risks everything to save his beloved daughter from the kidnapper. Well his daughter's kidnap is a mistake, the kidnappers wrongly abduct the driver's daughter instead the girl he works for. The story begins with his boss, a corrupted minister having sex with a minor girl. The lower middle class families are the one affected by this most powerful and rich minister. So the plot was very clear about its kidnapping theme which involves political corruption and scandals.

Any parents can feel the heat for this father who roams in the streets like a strayed dog. The story was hyped enough to create tension and confuse over the viewers to see a struggling father to get his daughter home safely. He was an ordinary father, definitely not like Liam Neesan from the movie 'Taken'. A police officer lands to him for a help, knowing that corruption is everywhere the desires to work alone. In other side, it get started to unfold the story of a driver's ill wife which turns him from a witness to a suspect to the law's eye.

The movie looked kinda real, like a documentary or something about under aged child kidnapping and forced into prostitution. The director really did a fine research about it to nail this movie. There was a scene it was totally disturbing to catch a minor girl in the act. I don't know is it permitted to make one like that, for me I felt it was totally unnecessary. It divides the audience into two specially the family audience. The twist was great, that made the movie's value reach a little bit higher. 'Trade' was a movie about human trafficking that happened in northern America while 'Taken' in Europe and 'Graceland' is not too far from those two which take place in south-east Asia. Overall it was a movie will leave you the unbearable images even after a watch.

8/10

Not exactly Memphis, TN

[asc85 · 8/10 · 16 November 2013]

This is an outstanding first effort by director Ron Morales. As of this writing, I don't see him attached to directing another film. Please tell me he's in the middle of a negotiation, and that others are smart enough to recognize this guy's talent.

The plot is extremely interesting if a bit contrived at times. Very stylishly done, with a number of provocative twists that most won't see coming, which is why I don't want to discuss the film in very much detail, as knowing some of the twists may ruin it for you. As a bonus, the film is short and sweet...about an hour and 20 minutes long.

Although this is listed as a 2012 release, I consider it a 2013 movie, as it wasn't really available in America until then. So for me, I consider it one of the better 2013 releases I've seen this year, and has a chance to make my Best 10 at the end of the year. It's that good. So if you like the thriller genre, this one is definitely worth the look.

Strong story, nice visuals

[kosmasp · 6/10 · 25 May 2014]

The story is very strong and the visuals accompany the whole thing very nicely. Unfortunately the script is not as strong. I guess you could also blame the actors a little bit for not being totally convincing (though the "father" himself and a few other characters are really good too) through the whole movie.

It's more than gritty and people will either like it for the fact (and award more points than me) or dislike it, because of its nature. The camera does suggest and gives a documentary feeling. If only they had concentrated on the things that make this movie strong, it would have a greater impact (it already has, but there could be more).

So real!

[krjk07 · 8/10 · 20 August 2013]

I know usually audiences who had watched this kind of kidnapping movies would certainly look for more action and visuals. Then when i saw this the suspense came from a believable story that could really happen. The situation was really a torture since you would see where poverty leads to others.Child prostitution seems to be the worst case. The execution was great, i really admire the actors they were natural, they gave justice to the movie. I think the fast phase story has made it more entertaining to watch.Also i liked the twist because all along I thought "Marlon" has nothing to do with it but he was also a victim of Poverty, He would take the risk just to help his ill wife and her daughter. It was all good for me but still depressing at the end. He didn't have any choice because he had the life he had which takes risks and his daughter has to live in a lie.I just wish the movie would have been longer.

Very good movie

[bbfrmrp · 8/10 · 20 January 2021]

It was very strange. From the first scene I knew I had seen this film before. Some on must have made it into an American or an English film. I like the scenery was very interesting. Very sad seeing all those young girls in the brothel. I would recombed the movie..

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

[MessyStinkman · 5/10 · 19 July 2014]

GRACELAND is a watchable, well-made crime thriller, but the similarities to Park Chan Wook's SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE were distracting.

Spoilers ahead: Both films feature a man who, after being fired by his boss, decides to kidnap his boss' daughter to help pay for his sick loved one's organ transplant. The kidnappings don't go according to plan (what kidnappings do?) and one of the two abducted schoolgirls dies. Both films also feature shady organ dealers and of course the revenge theme. There are enough changes in the story to make it interesting in its own right though.

End of Spoilers While SYMPATHY had stunning cinematography, GRACELAND was shot on hand-held DSLR video and it shows. It is what it is due to the low budget, but I think it's worth mentioning.

It felt a lot longer than it was, but held my attention nonetheless. The violence is sudden and raw and the always changing story is intriguing. The acting was okay, although watching the main character cry in almost every scene was tiring. There are a couple scenes of underage nudity that felt unnecessary and exploitative.

Overall it wasn't a waste of time. GRACELAND is passable, highly derivative entertainment, if you're in the mood for a bleak noir-ish crime thriller filled with repellent characters.

It's A Crime Thriller, And So Much More.

[JoeKulik · 10/10 · 2 September 2015]

Ron Morales' Graceland (2012) is a very well executed, and very complex film that doesn't fit neatly into one of the simple pigeon holes of "genre".

This film is certainly a "crime thriller" that will keep you emotionally "on the edge of your seat" all the way through. The crime narrative is rather innovative too, with lots of unexpected twists.

Yet, because this film is set in the Philippines, the filmmaker is offered a unique opportunity to concurrently create an effective "social criticism" film about life in a desperately poor, and undeveloped nation as well. This filmmaker creates much social criticism by skillfully framing certain select scenes that silently speak volumes of social criticism simply because the images portrayed would be just morally outrageous to the average viewer.

This film is also a very deep, and insightful character study of the protagonist, a very poor, and very uneducated man, but a man who seems to have a good heart, and solid moral values, but yet a man who must compromise himself on a daily basis by committing unspeakable acts every day, just as a matter of course, for the physical, and economic survival of himself and his family.

The most unique aspect of this film for me was the stunning coup de theatre near the end of the film, that made it necessary for me to reinterpret the whole story up to that point, to formulate a new answer to the question: "What is going on in this film?" for myself. As mentally and emotionally unsettling as this sudden revelation of facts about the story was for me so close to the end of the film, it was a very interesting, and very refreshing, and unique film viewing experience for me as well.

Overall, I would say that Ron Morales is a very good filmmaker, with a real grasp on what it takes to make not only a film with artistic merit, but a film that is commercially viable as well. This filmmaking neophyte really deserves the opportunity to make many more films.

Badly written screenplay

[Aristides-2 · 1/10 · 22 September 2015]

The writer part of the writer-director (Ron Morales) must have decided to shoot the first draft of 'Graceland' because if he had read it a second or third time he would have seen the glaring story problems that unfortunately infect the movie released to the general public. Spoilers. We learn near the end of the story that the gunman/kidnapper did the crime to avenge the underage daughter who the bad congressman hired to have sex with and who he unwittingly gave alcohol to, such alcohol causing the child to die because of a low tolerance for it. Problem here? The movie early on established that the congressman went to a bordello that specialized in underage girls. Well folks, didn't her amoral, stupid and psychotic father know where she earned her cash? Why didn't he stop her from being a whore? Oh... that's because she died after being forced to drink booze. Bad man doesn't care about the prostitution but doesn't want his daughter to drink. Yikes. 2. If dad was so sensitized to all of the young girls predicament, forcing the bad man to give them the initial ransom payment, why did he arbitrarily kill the equally young girl who was initially kidnapped. (Oh, that's right, he actually knew he was killing the bad man's daughter because Marlon was one of the architects of the kidnapping.) But why then was Marlon so surprised when the murder took place. As a co-conspirator he also must have known where his daughter was from the very beginning. Why then was he so bent out of shape since he knew his daughter was going to be released once the ransom was paid. (He also played dumb to the camera even when no one was around to observe his 'act'. Why? Well actually that's because director Morales didn't think it through.) We never see the cop affect an arrest and free the daughter after he hears a gun shot near the end. Kind of an important scene to show, don't you think? Finally, though there's plenty more, we have to assume that the bad guy, after finding his by now putrid dead child in the back of the car (in the Phillipines; sub tropic temperatures and very humid), will notify the police of this and an autopsy will show that she died days before. Remember, he confessed to his crimes, for which I'm sure he'll be arrested and imprisoned, gave up his career and lost his wife and fortune. Wouldn't he at least insist, since he has nothing left to lose, on finding out the truth? Remember that for all his depravity he deeply loved her. But finding out that she had been killed days earlier would lead to Marlon being arrested and hopefully for this viewer, sent to prison for 30 years. The autopsy would show that Marlon had to be lying about everything. (What a gutless creep he turned out to be.) Then there's the money Marlon gives to some black market organ seller. Where in god's name did he get the money from? I'll grant you this: Morales knows how to compose a scene, get fine performances from the actors and knows how to add music and edit. But the story itself? Not thought out and sub-amateurish.

Graceland things are the same everywhere.

[skippeffer · 9/10 · 20 January 2019]

Movie is riviting. Plot keeps you guessing all the way through. You feel and see the desperation and experience the power of class previlage and money. The hopelessness of being guilty by culture and social standing rather than facts. Loved the movie.