Reclaim (2014) User Reviews

I've Seen Worse

[larrys3 · 6/10 · 7 January 2015]

I had very low expectations going in regarding this film, so I'd have to say it overall was somewhat better than I anticipated. Yes, it has some really ridiculous plot elements, but it does maintain a fair degree of tension throughout and might serve the viewer as simply an escape type flick. It also has quite the strong cast in John Cusack, Ryan Phillippe, Rachelle Lefevre, Jack Weaver, and Luis Guzman.

Set in Puerto Rico, a well-off couple Steven (Phillippe) and Shannon (Lefevre) arrive on the island to pick up their newly adopted seven-year-old daughter Nina (Briana Roy). It's all been set up by an international adoption agency run by a Mrs. Reigert (Weaver), who greets them on their arrival and arranges for them to stay at a resort for a few days until Nina's passport comes through.

While there, they're approached by the creepy and mysterious Benjamin (Cusack) and his two cohorts, and they start to feel quite uncomfortable with Benjamin's omnipresence and all his questions. Steven and Shannon change hotels, but soon find themselves right in the middle of a huge adoption scam called "reclaiming", and eventually even find themselves being kidnapped.

All of this will eventually lead to a wild, prolonged, and rather melodramatic ending.

All in all, as mentioned there's some gaping plot holes to be found in the movie, but I still thought there was enough here to be mildly entertaining. I've certainly seen a lot worse and felt it was worth the $1.59 I spent at redbox.

The emotion of parents having their child taken really helps you get sucked in & you are right there with them hoping they find her

[cosmo_tiger · 6/10 · 13 October 2014]

"This scam that you're talking about might be true but it also might not be so you have to keep looking for her." Shannon (Lefevre) and Steven (Phillippe) are Americans who have traveled to another country in order to pick up the daughter they have adopted. The girl loves them instantly and the parents feel the same way. When they wake up one morning and find her gone they run to the police who tell them about a common adoption scam that is being run. The new parents decide to take it upon themselves to get her back anyway they can. This is a movie that I wasn't expecting a whole lot from but was pleasantly surprised at how much I like this. The movie was tense and gripping almost the entire time. The emotion of parents having their child taken really helps you get sucked in and you are right there with them hoping they find the girl. While it is sometimes predictable it doesn't distract from the intensity and I liked this quite a but. Overall, a gripping movie about a real problem in the world that I recommend watching. I give this a B.

Entertaining, but don't expect much

[Tyypo · 6/10 · 15 May 2016]

Reviewers who criticize the intelligence and common sense of our main characters are spot on. From the very beginning, there is a bad vibe from the woman who is arranging the adoption. The couple ignores that. Then John Cusack's character gives an on off the charts creepy disingenuousness that screams something is wrong from his very first appearance. He keeps showing up everywhere, and yet they still don't suspect anything.

The middle of the movie keeps the viewer on edge, just waiting for worse things to happen and they do. Then a series of very cliché events happen. I'm always tempted to highlight them all, but I know others have already done that dirty work for me. The biggest theme is that our protagonists choose not to fully incapacitate their captors, and it comes back to bite them repeatedly. I was also disappointed in the ambiguity of the ending. Still, it wasn't a complete waste of time. It was nice but also disconcerting to see John Cusack as a villain, and he generally pulls it off.

one of the worst scripts i ever seen

[yaniv_ya3 · 1/10 · 30 September 2014]

The idea of the movie is great. It's suppose to be a great thriller. The man who wrote this script must find himself another job, because he has done all he can to ruin it. it's so unreliable and has so many holes and problems. If i ignore the script and the bad acting, the sites of the film are very beautiful. i don't understand how John Cusack agreed to play in this movie. Luis Guzman got himself a bad role, and he performes very badly in it. I think he was discussed of the script so much he couldn't do it right. If you like thrillers, do yourself a favour and DON'T watch the movie. Sometimes the score of a movie in IMDb lies, but this time i think the grade of the movie does a mercy with it.

Very fun and entertaining

[chrismackey1972 · 7/10 · 19 September 2014]

This was a fun movie. When I saw the poster for this and read the summary, I didn't really know what to expect. I grudgingly watched it because I'm not really a fan of anyone in it. However, they were all very good in their roles. Ryan Phillipe and Rachelle Lefevre play a married couple who cannot have kids, so they adopt a little Haitian girl - Nina. John Cusack plays a neighbor who almost immediately makes you question his sincerity as a "nice" neighbor. Along with him, he has two friends who send a bad vibe to anyone with a brain. I won't give away any spoilers, but the movie was intense, and it shows a realistic view of what can happen when you use an adoption agency from a third-world nation. Obviously, they're not all like this, but in situations of adoption, it is best to go with those organizations that are extremely reputable. Again, the acting was very good, and I think the anxiety, anger, and horror Phillipe and Lefevre convey is right on. The car chase at the end and the very final scene are very cliché, but still fun. I gave this a 7-star rating. I enjoyed and recommend it.

The Worst Movie I've Seen This Year

[chicagopoetry · 1/10 · 19 September 2014]

Oh good grief I can't believe what a horrible movie Reclaim was. What starts out as a potentially promising Mamet-esque suspense thriller about a couple adopting a child through a seedy agency, turns into nothing but one cliché after another, one stupid, implausible scenario after another, one ridiculous car chase after another. I was literally shouting at this movie, laughing at the illogical actions of the characters. The sad thing is John Cusack actually gives a really great performance here as a bad guy. He's really at the top of his game. But for what? This idiotic, ridiculous premise? Even the happy ending makes no sense when they finally "save" the little girl they were trying to adopt (who was in on the plot all along) and tell her they're going to take her home with them. How? With no passport? With no legal adoption papers? What nonsense. It's just one example of how the screenwriters didn't bother to make sure anything in this film was plausible. Let's give another example of stupidity. The guy's locked in the trunk of a car, banging away, punching and kicking at the inside of the locked hood, as if that's going to help, and this goes on and on, and then suddenly he remembers he has a gun in his sock, so he shoots the lock and of course it doesn't ricochet into his face as it probably would instead it magically opens the locked trunk. So, why was he punching and kicking the hood in the first place if he had a magic trunk opening gun in his sock? Urrgh. What a stupid movie.

Suspenseful Action & Puerto Rican Locations Highlight B-Movie with a Message

[LeonLouisRicci · 6/10 · 29 March 2017]

Human Trafficking by way of an Internet Scam "Selling" Children to Desperate, Wanting Rich Parents Trying to Avoid Red-Tape, with the Pretense of Legitimacy.

The Low-Budget Movie starts with the Devastation of a Haitian Earthquake and its Aftermath. The Orphaned Children are then Exploited as Product.

Puerto Rican Locations Highlight the Backdrop to what amounts to a Frantic Chase to "Reclaim" a Little Girl that has been "Reclaimed" by the Traffickers. It's a Battle of Brawn with very Little Wit on Both Sides.

John Cusac vs Ryan Phillippe and Rachelle Lefevre with Little Briana Roy as the "Daughter"/Package.

It's Suspenseful Enough with the Action and Acting on Par with the Production, Especially Cusac who Elevates the Proceedings in quite a Slimy Role in this Formulaic Film.

Worth a Watch for Interested Viewers but don't expect any Surprises, It does have a rather Distant Feel considering the Up Close Situation of a "Family" Torn Apart and the Urgency Involved.

Such an annoying movie!!!

[sensory-746-150115 · 2/10 · 27 October 2014]

Try as I might otherwise, I am certain the NO ONE is as dumb as the parental couple in this film. Every decision the parents make is wrong. Upon multiple reviews, I could not come to similar choices if I were in their place. Again and again common sense is replaced by sheer stupidity. My frustration level was so high after watching, that when I returned home after watching, I was yelling so much at these simpletons that my dogs hid from me. If the writers and actors intent was to frustrate the paying patron with idiocy, I wish they'd let us know ahead of time so we could perhaps dig a hole in the back yard and toss the admission money into it instead. Anger and annoyance from the waste of my time.

I want my 90 minutes back!!

[mageloff · 1 January 2015]

*** Spoiler Alert *** This is my first ever review - I am writing this to save you from WASTING 90 minutes of your life as my wife and I did! What a complete piece of trash and HUGE insult to my integrity as a human being!! If you want to be an armchair director and yell at your TV - this is your movie!! Absurd scenes of violence and car chases that even a high schooler would have negotiated better!! The problem is in the last 15 minutes or so of the movie. Everything is really good up to that point. You know things are up but do not know exactly what, great entertainment. But then as the plot begins to unfold, it turns to total crap and bunch of ridiculous plot turns and a retaliation from Phillippe that is so absurd at every turn that you really feel the insult to your integrity like no movie I have ever seen. Cusack and Phillippe - I will be much more careful before I EVER watch one of your movies again, why did you even bother???

Fine

[fluturoj · 6/10 · 7 August 2016]

Another movie portraying and suggesting how criminal offences happen best in a land far away from the western world.

The real-life lesson: there is on lesson that can be taken from this: scams do exist. I personally am a very optimistic person and would rely on peoples good intention and will in most cases not thinking about scams, but as this movie shows, scams are common and should be taken seriously. Also, people should not be believed just because they show up to your door and ask you to follow them on the basement (like the couple beloved the girl when she said she knew where Nina was.

Plausibility: the scam happening is definitely possible and so is the way the couple escapes. This as a matter of fact was one of the strengths of the movie: the criminals are people too and so they make mistakes and things get out of their control (like loosing the Steven at the bank or leaving the girlfriend alone with the couple and they escaping from girlfriends guard).

Character analysis: Benjamin- a polite criminal - hated betrayal and was extremely greedy. All we know about him is that he claimed to be adapted too, why he did what he did was not explained and so left us with the implication that money was the only reason. He could have been developed further to give us a better understanding of his actions. Steven-bad decision maker- decisions that had had bad consequences in the past and as a result his self esteem and confidence is shaken. Shannon-bringing up that Steven's decisions have not always been the best (in the hotel when she said that use your judgement) did definitely not make her my favourite. But not be so harsh she is human and things are said at times when emotions are high as was the case with Shannon.

Acting: Rachelle Lefevre was great and so was John Cusack. At the beginning I was thinking why did they cast Ryan Phillippe when he was doing such a poor job, but if the character was of Ryan Phillippe was supposed to be someone that comes across as insecure or a coward (as I learned later that this was the case ) than Ryan Phillippe too did a great job in bringing his character across as exactly that-insecure.

Plot/Storyline development: it was at times slow. Especially when the movie was so keen to show us what a wonderful time the family was having. I think those scenes could have been moved way after. What I loved however was how when I believed that the story was over and they are save now only waiting for the criminal lady to be catch, the final action had not even started. That was an unexpected turn of events for me that I liked.

Film touted to expose child trafficking in the world gets it wrong.

[bubbakid · 3/10 · 20 September 2014]

All right, Cusack and Guzman are pretty good but the whole movie is as probable as the New York Giants winning the Super Bowl. All the bad get killed, all the good guys survive (even Guzman who looked like he died gives us an alive wink to show he survived a massive bullet to his head. The saddest part of the movie is the end message which states that 1.2 million children are trafficked throughout the world each year and they are invisible. Sad but true but it had nothing to do with this movie. Nina was only posing as a trafficked child. Her adoptive mom just happened to be a scam artist. All in all skip the movie and if you are interested in the problem of human trafficking there are plenty of other places to find real stories.

It's a good movie

[kyleponiki-minecraft · 10/10 · 8 February 2015]

I'm voting 10 stars to spite these people here. This movie deserves at least a 6 star rating. I picked this movie OnDemand mostly because of Rachelle Lefevre,and her roll in Under the Dome. As expected, her acting was great. Now onto the case of the trunk shooting, I understand that a gun wouldn't open a trunk, but why are you guys being so nitpicky? Lots of movies have unrealistic scenes in them. If you ignore the small errors in this movie, you will be entertained. If you are nitpicky and analyze the movie,then yes,you will notice lots of small flaws. All I can say is that I enjoyed the movie and didn't expect such a low score. 8/10 Stars

Give it a go!

[mrsangieadam · 7/10 · 16 August 2019]

I don't understand all the negative nay nasty reviews of this film. It was entertaining and held my interest throughout. Maybe not the most exciting or action filled film but it was a good story and had it's moments. A thoroughly pleasant way to pass a couple of hours. I also thought the actors did a great job. The little girl was adorable and thoroughly professional. Good job all round.

waste of time

[samerkq · 2/10 · 26 September 2014]

Here goes an hour and a half of my life for nothing. the acting was very bad (even John Cusack's), the directing is very very bad. the story itself is not solid, and the reason for the couple to adopt is repeating itself over and over, directors have to find a new reason for couples to adopt other than that story. i think the story shows how naive this couple was, and how they got themselves in trouble, and the funny thing is they won against a very bad people, loaded with guns and criminal history. the husband doesn't look of the type who will beat a whole gang, and he looked as comfortable with the places he is in as it were his neighborhood.

I don't recommend this movie at all, very bad and a waste of time.

I want to get adopted

[Prismark10 · 3/10 · 21 September 2015]

Low budget, low grade thriller which cynically pretends it is dealing with the issue of child trafficking.

In fact its just a dumb trailer with multiple endings to pad out its short running time and lack of main plot.

Steven (Ryan Phillippe) and Shannon (Rachelle Lefevre) are a couple who have received a multi million dollar payout after an automobile accident which also left her unable to have kids.

They take part in an adoption process abroad to take care of an Haitian girl which is going to cost them a lot of money. Just before the process is finalized the keep bumping into Benjamin (John Cusack) and then later realise that the girl they were hoping to adopt has disappeared and the whole adoption process was a scam. As the local police tell them, the girl was reclaimed and the scam will move on elsewhere.

However the schemers want more as they become aware that our couple have serious money so go for a big payday by kidnapping them.

The film has a flimsy plot and flimsier action and just when you thought its all over we get a literal cliffhanger and then some more.

The film actually feels longer than its short running time. It is a straight to pay TV film which has bagged a couple of well known names who perform adequately with a poor script and not very good direction. However the actress playing the adopted girl was very stiff and inanimate. If I was adopting her I would had asked for a refund.

A Chicago couple goes from paradise to hell in Puerto Rico

[Wuchakk · 7/10 · 30 June 2021]

A well-to-do couple from Chicago (Ryan Phillippe & Rachelle Lefevre) travels to San Juan to adopt an orphaned girl after the earthquake in Haiti. Everything is going fine while they wait for the girl's papers to be finalized, but then all hell breaks loose. John Cusack plays a friendly neighbor while Luis Guzmán is on hand as a police chief.

"Reclaim" (2014) is a drama that turns into crime thriller and jungle adventure (sort of) highlighted by the lush Puerto Rican locations, a quality cast and an increasingly compelling story. Cusack's performance alone is worth the price of admission. Critics complain about some clichés or problematic parts, like the cliff sequence and the girl with the gun, but it otherwise delivers the goods for this type of movie.

The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot in Puerto Rico.

GRADE: B-/B.

Disappointing

[bob-rutzel-1 · 3/10 · 8 January 2015]

Steven (Ryan Phillippe) and wife Shannon (Rachelle Lefevre) get caught up in a child trafficking scam when they go to Puerto Rico to adopt a young girl.

The above is all you really need to know. If you take the language out this would be a tepid made-for-TV movie. The script is lame, the acting is okay but there is no pull here. In other words no real reason to continue watching. There are no twists. What you see is what you get and that is not saying much. If you are not familiar with human trafficking then this is a primer for you: Human Trafficking 101.

Very disappointing. It should have had more impact, importance that would have showcased a very big worldwide problem: human trafficking. Didn't happen.

Normally, I run to a John Cusack movie. Now I have to rethink that. Like I said: disappointing. (3/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes.

Underrated gem

[ras0145 · 7/10 · 26 October 2020]

I usually skip writing reviews unless the movie really moves me (one way or the other.) RECLAIM is one of those. I actually enjoyed the film for what is was, simple escapism. Script was completely believable, with us watching a beautiful, young couple dealing with the heartbreak and terror of being scammed trying to adopt. Lots of car chases, plot twists, gun play and bad guys. What more can you ask for. Watched this movie on Cinemax last night. Time well spent.

Great plot distilled to predictability. Well done actually you look at it in that light!

[Falconer1 · 2/10 · 1 October 2014]

Great movie idea which could have been a REAL cliff-hanger. But, but, but...instead it ended up being incredibly lame and excruciatingly poorly executed. Actually, for such a fantastic movie-plot to become so predictable is a feat unto itself! (which is the only decently "starred" rating it gets). Incohesion springs to mind. The cliff- hanger (and yes, there literally is one) is made all the worse by an amazing irritation over the main characters total lack of action. And then an agonizingly trite ending with the very obvious "family-stick- together" theme and police WAUW WAUW make me feel both frankly manipulated and with a feeling of WTF!?. I am actually somewhat offended because it feels as if good actors are used to gain my time and money. Sadder still, Mr. Cusack (who should be more discerning I think) is going to have this shite to deal with the rest of his career. Was it really worth the money and...I wonder how does he, and the other actors feel about the end result?

Adoption Scam

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 17 March 2015]

Ryan Phillippe and Rachel LeFevre are a pretty well to do yuppie couple who are in Puerto Rico looking to collect a daughter they've adopted who was orphaned from the earthquake in Haiti. It's an adoption agency run by Jacki Weaver and the couple has laid down some heavy bread for their new daughter Briana Roy. Before they leave the little girl up and disappears. Phillippe and LeFevre have been good and had as police lieutenant Luis Guzman tells them.

But the kidnappers are from finished, especially after the head kidnapper John Cusack hears how rich these two are. That was their undoing, they should have cleared out and run with what they had.

Cusack is a particularly nasty piece of work, but he has a lot of problems controlling his henchman Jandres Burgos who has some real management issues. He dislikes Phillippe instantly and he dislikes each and every thing about him, looks, money, beautiful wife.

Reclaim is a film about adoption scams. God knows there's a lot of third world kids out there and a lot of childless parents like Phillippe and LeFevre who can't have children and it's a terrible heartache that real bottom feeders like Cusack and Weaver seek to exploit.

A lot of good location cinematography in Puerto Rico is featured with some nice shots of Old San Juan and the rain forest and beach. The cast is good and the climax is a thriller.

A great little movie-- we liked it a lot!

[crownvicrolling · 9/10 · 19 September 2014]

Me and my husband watched this and liked it a lot. It's not a crazy big movie but the married couple (Rachelle Lefevre and Ryan Phillipe) were very real and I think it showed a married couple becoming parents very well. I cared about them and when things started to go south it was very suspenseful which I thought built well and as the stakes rose and the action began it was all very exciting. John Cusack was also very good in this-- he played the bad guy but in a very different way then you've seen before and it was really a joy to watch. The scene at the end with Jacki Weaver and him was one of the best I've seen in a long time. Briana Roy the girl is going to be a star she was so adorable! All in all we were very entertained throughout so what more can you ask for?

Poor writing

[Kode9 · 4/10 · 27 July 2021]

Lazy writing that creates suspense through characters' stupidity and overused tropes.

The beginning of the movie is the only thing that's good about it.

Not impressed

[simbijulien · 5/10 · 14 November 2014]

I will give this 5/10 just because, but as a film i did not love this especially the screen writing, the plot of the film was amazing but it was so predictable, and the ending made it worse, again because of the writing. The guy was locked in the trunk of a car with a dead police officer, doesn't realize he has a gun until the very end, despite him banging so hard which can only mean he wanted to get out desperately, therefore there is no way he would have forgotten about the end. Another thing that really put me off is the fact that the little girl was in the plot all along, at her age, she should have known better, and yet when they discovered she was in, they still told her they'd take her home, which nobody in his right mind would... so yeah, great plot, poor writing. Isn't there a TV show with a slightly similar plot?

Veteran actors let down by poor directing and bad script

[livemeyer-41359 · 3/10 · 15 June 2018]

I wanted to like this movie both because of the subject being tackled and the quality of the actors. The four lead actors do a great job with what they're given, especially Rachelle Lefevre, who plays a convincingly distraught and desperate mother.

Sadly, the script has been "Hollywoodized." I hope the screenwriter and director White never work again. This could have been a tense, gritty thriller. Instead, it turned into an overblown, overwritten, hyperbolic mess.

The worst faux pas was the girl, Nina, picking up the gun at the end. This time wasting minute was intended to milk the climax but it's believability is a head-scratcher.

The rest of it fell into tired old tropes: the feeling that all is okay, but the bad guy isn't dead and you are captured and have to escape again; defying the laws of physics to escape a cliff-hanging car; shooting out the trunk latch from the inside; bad guys shooting bad guys 'cause, well, they're bad guys; bad guy shooting at good guy at nearly blank range in a narrow stairwell and missing (twice); good guy gets advantage of bad guy (girl) in a moment of distraction; cops do nothing except clean up the mess afterward; good guys are tied up but are left alone so they can manage to escape; and so on...

Human trafficking is a serious issue that deserved a serious story. This turned into a 80's episode of the A-team, sans Mr. T.

Acting: B- Directing: D Screenplay: F Sound Mixing, Soundtrack: C Special Effects: D Lighting, Cinematography: B

Could things get any worse?

[bkeithphelps74 · 1/10 · 12 January 2015]

One word of warning for when you want to adopt a foreign-language speaking child from a far-away place: Make sure she (or he) can actually speak more than 4 words of that language before you accept that s/he is from the place & speaks the language you were told by the agency in question. If the child can't do so, you MIGHT want to question the facts you've been given. That said, this little girl is supposed to speak French. Although we hear about MAYBE 4 words spoken by her in French the entire movie after she gives her name & age in the beginning, she also nods in total understanding & responds to commands given to her in English as though she speaks it fluently throughout the movie. Which makes me wonder: Why doesn't she ever speak a single word of it to either set of her English speaking parents (Phillipe/LeFevre or Cusack & his evil cohort/girlfriend)? Can she even speak at all beyond the approximately 4 words I have mentioned that we hear in this movie? Is there any reason that Ryan Phillipe & Rachelle LaFevre actually believe this little girl is a child they should WANT to take home after this affair, given the fact that she was in on the scam all along... & points a gun in their faces as soon as the bad guys are all dead? And just HOW do they plan to take her home, seeing as they have no papers or passport for her? Or should we not remember that when we watch this? And lastly, is there any reason why we shouldn't know the Jeep is going to fall off the cliff the very MOMENT that Ryan pulls Rachelle out of it safely (of course, the child is already safe & sound, as well...) I could not BE any more disappointed that a movie with such names as Cusack & Phillipe (both of whom I usually enjoy watching) & even Guzman would feature this level of bad acting - not so much by Cusack & Phillipe (or Weaver) as by some others - & such a poorly written plot. I'm trying to figure out why Briana Roy was just so stiff & unconvincing in her role, given that her bio claims that she does speak French (& Creole) in real life. I TOTALLY don't believe that the child in this movie comes from Haiti & speaks native French when I watch this movie, & we should be buying into that when we watch her, at least for the most part, for her to be cast as the actress in this role. I didn't think Roy actually knew French in real life upon watching this until I looked up her bio on IMDb, & I thought that was the reason for all her silence & stiff nodding throughout the movie! I'm not calling Roy a bad actress, but this role was either not well suited to her or she wasn't directed well. Guzman is so stiff that you almost think he's in on the scam the whole time as a corrupt police officer - his acting is unconvincing & LOOKS like acting. That's why I thought he was in on the scam! Let's not even get into the horrible special effects, like the Jeep looking & sounding like a tin-can when it falls down the cliff to the ocean & rocks below, or the sped-up action shots of the car chase. Can I please have a refund on those minutes of my life I spent watching this?