Review of The Captive (2014) by Emma A — 05 Sep 2014

If you've seen one thriller you've seen them all. Some people would argue that this statement is true and 99% of the time I disagree with them but, this is the rare, one percent of the time, which I do. The Captive has a very similar plot as Prisoners (2013) and holds very similar themes as Prisoners does. What differentiates the two films from each other is the lack of acting ability in The Captive and the strange story telling aspect that the director has used to show the passing of time and flashbacks. Part of what gave Prisoners such a suspenseful and thrilling edge was the buildup of anticipation and anxiety as well as how well executed the story telling was. The director of Prisoners used an array of effective story telling devices (the weather, night vs. day and the worsening abuse of their Antagonist) to help them in showing the passing of time. When talking strictly about the story the director kept it in a forward motion never confusingly moving backwards or forwards without explanation as to what was happening, while still trying to get the whole story across. While watching The Captive I found myself trying harder to figure out WHEN events were happening opposed to WHAT was happening and the fact that the entire movie was filmed during the day and in the winter did not help in trying to decipher the code that was the order of events and clues. I found the acting in The Captive to be very poor, regardless of a big name actor, Ryan Reynolds, holding the main role. If I was a mother or father that had lost my daughter to a kidnapper, who was antagonizing me, I would not be living an average life and just excepting all of the taunting as willingly as the actors portals do in this film.

Overall I found the film to be very difficult to watch with a very anticlimactic ending and a lot of holes in it's plot.