Well I will admit, my decision to see this movie mainly revolved around the fact that Elisha Cuthbert is hot. I've heard the hype about the billboard scandal, honestly I was more interested in the fact that the director (Roland Joffe) also did the Super Mario Bros movie. Most of the reviews I've read gave Captivity a negative review and after seeing the first few scenes I was hoping to have something more positive to say as it does start out promisingly enough. Once Miss Sexyface gets kidnapped though, things just start getting worse and don't stop til it's over.
We're given no character development, aside from the interaction between the two captives, and even then nothing that evokes empathy. We're shown snippets of interviews that ostensibly have been taped by the captors and that I guess are played randomly throughout the day on a multitude of different montors/tv's set up around the house. I spent more time thinking about what it would take to rig that all up than about the unfolding plot, so I guess it's entirely possible I missed some all-revealing detail. It seems that we are supposed to identify with the killer and his desire to own something that everyone else wants rather than the captive Jennifer Tree (Cuthbert). Add in the home videos of Gary and Ben when they're younger (taped by the father? third unseen brother? who knows) and it really does seem like we're supposed to feel more pity for the bad guys than the victim.
I think if I had to pick one scene that typified Captivity it would have to be when the Jennifer and Gary (Daniel Gillies) make sweet beautiful love. It was probably the most contrived example among a number of situations and scenes that felt like the director was thinking "hey.. wanna see what ELSE I thought up? Check this out." It served no purpose other than I guess to make it that much more shocking when Gary turns out to be one of the captors. Oh did I ruin it? No I didn't, you can see it coming a mile away. The film also stars Pruitt Taylor Vince as Captor #1 who I haven't seen in quite a while and who I really like for some reason. Unforunately with the look that he has I can't really see him playing in much more significant parts than he is given here.
As far as the gore/torture/mind games they were definately stronger than expected, but ultimately brought me back to thinking "I don't know anything about this woman, why do I care?" The majority of the squirm scenes are psychological in nature, and for those types of scares to work you need to be invested in the person they're being wrought upon.
Rounding out the ineffective items in this movie are two throwaway cops who decide everything is fine and so they stay at the house to watch a basketball game. No seriously. I guess they figure they've investigated their one case for the day so time to kick back at a suspects house watching tv. The twist at the end was definitely not expected, I'll give them that, but again it was simply ineffective. The model-turned-vigilante thing may have worked if there was any character development, something for us to cheer about and be happy that poor Jennifer got free and now she's taking revenge, but there wasn't. It felt like another case of Joffe thinking "hey wouldn't it be neat if.." without putting any substance behind it. If you haven't noticed, I really felt this movie would have benefitted from even a bit of back story. Even a 10 minute cut and paste intro that would set the tone of the movie as well as bring us up to speed on who our heroine is and what she's all about. I guess a point could be made that she's introduced as "just a model" and we're not supposed to care about her. But if that's the case then it just proves that the movie is nothing more than a series of disturbing situations that writers Larry Cohen and Joseph Tura couldn't string together into a cohesive plot.
See this movie if you enjoyed Saw 4 or Hostel 2. High gloss imagery with no substance but with a modicum of originality is all this movie has to offer. That and Elisha Cuthbert doing what she does best, looking good.
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