The Captive (2014)

Eight years after the disappearance of Cassandra, some disturbing incidents seem to indicate that she's still alive. Police, parents and Cassandra herself, will try to unravel the mystery of her disappearance.

Director:

Atom Egoyan

Writers:

Atom Egoyan (story), Atom Egoyan (screenplay)

Stars:

Ryan Reynolds, Scott Speedman, Rosario Dawson

1 win & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kevin Durand	...	Mika
Alexia Fast	...	Cass Lane
Mireille Enos	...	Tina Lane
Rosario Dawson	...	Nicole Dunlop
Aidan Shipley	...	Albert
Ryan Reynolds	...	Matthew Lane
Paige Baril	...	Paige
Bruce Greenwood	...	Vince Gray
Scott Speedman	...	Jeffrey Cornwall
William MacDonald	...	Frank
Jason Blicker	...	Sam
Aaron Poole	...	Mike
Brendan Gall	...	Teddy
Peyton Kennedy	...	Young Cass
Mark Gorodnitsky	...	Young Albert

Storyline

Teenager Cassandra is locked up against her will unable to contact her family to let them know she's still alive. Flashback to eight years ago when 9-year-old Cass was abducted from her father's truck and he goes straight to the authorities who immediately peg him as the prime suspect. Eight years later, her father, Matthew, is still being investigated by the police who are also trying to crack the bigger problem of crimes against children, Matthew's marriage has deteriorated and leads in the case are hard to come by. So much time but so little has changed and it's going to be up to Matthew and Cassandra herself to repair the estranged family.

---

Plot Keywords:

disappearance | flashback | locked up | 9 year old | female detective | 

---

Taglines:

The hunt is on.

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some violence

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ryan Reynolds also starred with Kevin Durand in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009).

---

Goofs

After Matthew picks up his daughter from ice skating, she is in the back seat of the truck. When the truck is departing the parking lot, there is nothing visible in the bed of the pickup. In the very next shot, we are viewing the daughter as she looks out of the back window. In that shot there is a large, dark, rectangular shape in the pickup's bed that we can see in the reflection. The immediate scene after is a shot from inside the vehicle looking backwards toward the daughter, but you can also see out the back window and there is nothing at all visible in the bed.

The large rectangular 'box' seen in the window's reflection was obviously a 'hide'. The use of this hide was to have a place to put the camera, and to create a 'non-reflective' area on the window to allow for shooting the scene from the outside-in.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Mika: Maybe. Just this once. Let me think about it a little bit, okay?

---

Soundtracks

CHORALE from Jesus bleibet meine Freude Jesu, (Joy of Man's Desiring) BWV 147
Johann Sebastian Bach (as JS Bach)/adapted by Walter Barnes
Performed by Canadian Brass
©2011 Canadian Brass Publications Inc

User Reviews

Ryan Reynolds is the only interesting thing about The Captive

"You claim you didn't see anything suspicious when you looked back to the truck."

The Captive is the latest film directed by Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) which happened to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year where it was booed by the audience. I'd definitely not boo this film considering I didn't think it was a complete disaster, but I didn't really like it either. My reactions are mixed. On the one hand it tries to stand out from other kidnapping films by incorporating a non-linear structure, but unfortunately it doesn't really help the narrative either. It doesn't seem to have the character depth nor suspense that other successful movies dealing with kidnappings have. It is rather unfortunate as well that it was released one year after the highly praised Prisoners which was a much better film. There are some suspenseful moments in The Captive, but it is hard to care for these characters considering they weren't developed at all. They all seem to be sort of emotionally disconnected and the captive girl never seemed to had suffered any side effects from her captivity at all.

Despite all the misfires this film had there was a character that sort of managed to keep me interested, and I think it has to do in most part with Aaron Reynolds's solid performance. He plays the father of the kidnapped girl and he is the only one who seems believable in this world. While the film focused on him, it kept me engaged and interested, but as soon as the focus shifted to the other characters the story suffered. On the one hand you have the procedural part of the film that is incredibly annoying due to the poor job the detectives are doing on the case. The film failed to give the audience any plausible reason as to why these detectives were so intent on blaming the father for the kidnapping of the girl when he didn't actually do anything suspicious. Then on the other hand we get to see the kidnaper's relationship with the kidnapped girl which is completely unrealistic. So when the film departs from the Reynolds character (and it does so way too often) it completely looses its appeal. Mireille Enos plays the mother, but she doesn't add much to the film. When her initial reaction is to blame the father for the disappearance of the girl you kind of feel cheated because there is no rational explanation for these sort of behaviors. The entire reasoning behind this seemed to be to isolate the father and make us feel sympathetic towards him. There are some thrills in The Captive, but nothing really special to recommend.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 December 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

Queen of the Night

Filming Locations:

Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$407,804, 7 September 2014

Gross USA:

$1,075,178

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,096,212

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ego Film Arts, The Film Farm

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1