6/10

After watching the newest film from Oscar nominated director and writer Atom Egoyan, I can safely conclude that he saw the 2013 film “Prisoners” and didn’t like the ending. “The Captive” is the story about the kidnapping of a pre teen daughter, Cassandra from her parents Matthew and Tina (Ryan Reynolds and Mirielle Enos) without a trace. Eight years later, detectives Nicole (Rosario Dawson) and Jeffrey (Scott Speedman) are investigating online activity by pedophiles when they discover recent images of Cassandra. Convinced this is proof positive his daughter is still alive, desperate father Matthew vows to ensure her safe return even if it means risking his own life. Besides the obvious plot similarities, this film has a lot in common with The Captive, but some subtle differences. I enjoyed the original moments more than the things it tried to do better than it’s predecessor. Make no mistake, this film is nowhere in the same league as “Prisoners”, but it certainly has enough right about it to stand on two legs. The first of these is a more relatable male lead character in Reynolds. He feels more logical as a parent and doesn’t seem to fly off the handle as much as Hugh Jackman in “Prisoners”. Even when all signs point to him as the culprit, he continues on the road to find his daughter. Reynolds and Enos are just the tip of the iceburg in a star studded cast. The film also stars Rosario Dawson, Bruce Greenwood, and Scott Speedman. I will get to the ladder later on in the review. The movie doesn’t waste it’s 105 minute run time with any spare parts that weigh the film down into boring territory. People who hated the ending to “Prisoners” will more than enjoy the satisfying climax of the film’s end. It’s a little silly how we get to that moment, but we more than appreciate the all questions being answered approach by Egoyan. He clearly believes in this script, and without the brush of originality and touches of goofiness during script twists, the film could’ve been memorable enough to get the big screen treatment. The problems i had with the film seem like a lot, but they are very easy to fix. First of all, those similarities to “Prisoners” are blatantly obvious. The grim and cold setting, the set up, and even the harsh detective (Speedman) who is being a little too hard on the father of the child. I admit that Speedman takes it to such ridiculous lengths that Jake Gyllenhaal would never be foolish enough to touch, but their characters certainly feel interlockable. I really did despise Speedman’s character because he felt so stupid in some of his assumptions that even his co-workers gave him strange looks. I think his character is written a little overboard for someone whose first interest is to help find this child. The clues for the parents to think their child is still alive is also too far fetched for our characters to grasp as solid evidence. One scene in particular shows Reynolds delivering some trees to a construction facility. He has to stay overnight in a hotel because of bad weather, and gets a surprise when he wakes up the next morning. His trees were taken out of his truck and spread out down different parts of the freeway. He decides to follow the trees and takes this as a trail to his daughter. Who wouldn’t take this as a prank from some crazy locals? It just seems very annoying considering he has no reason to accept this has anything remotely to do with his daughter. Another thing that i could’ve done without in this film was the reveal of the mystery taker within the first 20 minutes of the film. It sort of feels like the wind is let out of our sails as this no longer is a mystery. And oh is that villain the absolute worst part of this movie. The villain is so absolutely cartoonish that we feel like we are watching a TV show on Fox with his moves. His sudden change of intelligence midway through the movie is also unexplainable. One second, he outsmarts the authorities at every turn and then he is turning just sloppy enough before the end of the run time. You would never believe that this guy has been abducting girls for at least eight years when you see the sloppiness of operation. I just don’t buy it. The only other thing that bothered me was some back and forth foreshadowing that the film does at the end. The movie cuts back and forth between the day of the abduction, the week that follows, and eight years later. It takes us a minute between each of these cuts to understand where we are in the timeline. Some on screen text explaining when this scene is taking place would be beneficial for the viewer, as well as feel more like a crime drama with knowing the dates and places. While it sounds like i had a lot of problems with the film, i can safely say i was more than enough entertained to give this film a passing grade. I think if i saw it in theaters, i would be a little upset to pay the full price for a movie not nearly as satisfying as a similar and much better film that has been out on DVD for almost a year. But since this film is currently on DVD and On Demand, i can say it’s worth a rental. I think people who liked “Prisoners” will enjoy this movie, but they will understand the difference between good script writing and great script writing.