BEFORE: Bruce Greenwood carries over from "Swept Away", and I've got nearly a week of his films ready to go - this is going to be a lot like the Willem Dafoe week back in March or the Domnhall Gleeson split-week in January. You just never know where the linking is going to take me - it's a free-for-all that weaves wildly between the genres sometimes. Why not link from "The Voices" and put the two films with Ryan Reynolds together? Well, I tried it, but I was trying to hit the right number of films to see "Avengers: Endgame" on April 29, and that path fell just a little short. By splitting the two films and inserting five films in-between, the chain puts that upcoming superhero film right where I need it to be.
Only it's not really that this week, there's been an unplanned loose theme about kidnapping and abductions. Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her family were kidnapped in "The Most Hated Woman in America", and the Bellas were help captive in "Pitch Perfect 3" for a while - never get into an unmarked van, ladies. And then in "Swept Away", Madonna's character was (sort of) held captive on an island by man she previously bossed around and tormented, then she kind of fell in love with her captor, as crazy as that sounds. So in a weird way, this is the fourth film in a row about abductions.
THE PLOT: 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.
AFTER: This film also bears a slight resemblance to "True Detective" season 3, which I finished a couple weeks ago - the series really picked up some steam in the last few episodes, and I recommend it. In both cases, police get evidence that a young girl who disappeared years ago and was thought to be dead MIGHT be alive, and that's all I want to say about the similarities, for fear of spoilers on both stories. But both stories employ the "split narrative" technique that just keeps popping up again and again for me. "True Detective" employed it more artfully, as it bounced between 1980, 1990 and the present, with the lead detective character sorting through his own memories as he also battles through the onset of dementia. It's a race against time in the past to solve the crime, and a race in the present to remember everything before it gets lost.
No aging detectives in "The Captive", but the story flashes back a few times to the abduction in the past, and the start of the investigation, then whips back to the present, 8 years later, with all of the same characters, so without any on-screen mentions of the current date, or "8 years ago" popping up now and then, it can get very confusing. "True Detective" also made sure that the main characters had different hairstyles and clothing to reflect whatever year/timeline they were currently in, so I suppose I could have kept better track of what happened when if I just paid more attention to Stephen Dorff's receding hairline.
This movie also manages to tip its hand very early on, by revealing something very important to the audience in the first scene - unfortunately removing much of the mystery in this mystery, at least for the audience - so we get to know everything, even if we haven't put all of the pieces together yet. Then we have to wait for all the characters in the film to put it together, which can be excruciating at times. Again, this is all caused by the time-jumping, and I say avoid starting with what is essentially a flash-forward and proceed with the entire story in linear fashion - a flashback to the abduction is OK, but constantly toggling back and forth just makes it harder to put it all in order. Really, what would be the problem with the audience learning about the information in the case at the SAME TIME as the detectives and the victim's family - like, why can't WE be on the same page as the characters? Letting us know something before they know it seems like dirty pool where a narrative is concerned, or at least a cheap shortcut.
Adding to the problem is the fact that this film is set near Niagara Falls, NY - and everything important seems to take place in winter. But, to be fair, winter up there is probably about 10 months long. Still, a change of seasons could have helped the audience distinguish what was happening when.
Detectives have processes that they have to follow. Like they HAVE to consider that one (or both) of the parents is also a potential suspect. A few bad apples in the past can easily explain that. But I doubt that the detectives are supposed to tip their hand, and let the father KNOW that they have to consider him a suspect. There must be a better way to ask questions without being so blatant about it - like it's possible, but it's not automatically him, so why let him know and piss him off? Here this forces the girl's father to go rogue, and since his wife already blames him for his daughter's disappearance, and the police half-suspect him, he spends his time out on the road making deliveries for his landscaping business, always checking out hitchhikers and teen runaways, on the off chance that one could be his daughter. That's a recipe for disaster, though, isn't it, even if his intentions are good.
Ultimately what kills this narrative is a mistaken belief about how child predators operate - a belief that they somehow care about their victims, and will treat them as anything other than disposable. It might be OK to imagine that's the case, but the alternative seems much more realistic. Does it seem likely that their sick urges could be held in check if their victims share enough personal stories, sing songs for them and write them poems? I kind of doubt it. There are a ton of asides that never go anywhere, and the time-jumping is a big issue, but the portrayal of pedophiliacs and internet predators as something close to human is undoubtedly the biggest sin of all.
Also starring Ryan Reynolds (last seen in "The Voices"), Scott Speedman (last seen in "XXX: State of the Union"), Rosario Dawson (last heard in "The Lego Batman Movie"), Mireille Enos, Kevin Durand (last seen in "Fruitvale Station"), Alexia Fast (last seen in "Jack Reacher"), Peyton Kennedy, Aaron Poole (last seen in "Forsaken"), Christine Horne, Brendan Gall, Wiliam MacDonald, Jason Blicker (last seen in "Superstar"), Aidan Shipley, Ian Matthews, Ella Ballentine, Jim Calarco.
RATING: 4 out of 10 missing person flyers
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