The Captive

Atom Egoyan's latest film The Captive, takes a while to find its ground. The first twenty or so minutes are preoccupied with establishing the different time periods that dominate the film. But once the general plot becomes clear, it proves to be a relatively interesting, if not entirely captivating thriller.

Matthew (Ryan Reynolds) is a landscaper who has a young daughter, accomplished skater, Cass (Peyton Kennedy), with Tina (Mireille Enos). One day, when Matthew goes to buy a pie, Cass is kidnapped by Mika (Kevin Durand), a creepy presumed paedophile. Jump forward six years and Matthew and a small team of detectives are still searching for Cass. Mika has lost interest in her, but he uses her to lure other children, whilst in favour, allowing her to watch her parents through a surveillance system.

The Captive is in some ways, quite similar to Egoyan's previous film Devils Knot. The bleak imagery and slow camera movements both raise the tension and create a powerful, dismal setting. The plots both hold similar themes, with the disappearance of children, however The Captive proves more challenging with its paedophilic nature. At times it is quite difficult tocwatch, but unfortunately, towards the end it reverts more to a generic thriller, rather than pushing the envelope and grapple with the issues that it uses to frame the story.

Ryan Reynolds is fine as Matthew, although he spends most of the movie frustrated and confused. Mireille Enos is strong in some scenes, but does tend to overreact. The most powerful performance comes from Kevin Durand, who is bone-chilling and down-right creepy as Mika. The supporting characters generally don't bring much to the film, although Peyton Kennedy is quite good as the young Cass.

The Captive has a decent cast and some challenging themes, but unfortunately it fails to address those themes and simply becomes a typical thriller.