Captive,
a really tight, tense thriller, portrays the desperation of an inmate
frustrated about being locked up for so long for something he did not do. (The film leaves unclear whether he is
right or not, but seems to imply that he is correct.) Brian Nichols (Oyelowo) decides to take matters into his own
hands when he finds out he has a newly born son. So he breaks out of a courthouse jail leaving a
heartbreaking mess behind him, and ending up at Ashley Smith’s (Mara) house,
holding her captive. Ashley is
trying to get her life back in order so she can reclaim her daughter who has
been taken away from her, deemed as unfit to be a mother, so this is a very
inconvenient time, aside from the fear and anxiety it produces.
Most of the drama—based on a true story written
about in a memoir by the actual Ashley Smith, Unlikely Angel—takes place in her house where a relationship
develops between her and the escapee.
Ashley is even more terrified because Brian was serving time for a
vicious rape, which she knows about because his escape is breaking news on
TV. He binds together her hands
initially and her hands and feet later on, but as time goes on and they share
some of their back-stories, a certain amount of trust develops. Interestingly, they both go through
periods of soul-searching, especially when talking about children and their own
childhoods, and when she reads excerpts from a book she had previously
rejected, The Purpose Driven Life—a
Christian based book written by Rick Warren and blessed by Oprah Winfrey. Their interaction goes on through the
night, and by morning she is fixing him breakfast.
A deadline is approaching; she has promised to
attend her daughter’s program at school at 9:30 am. It’s critical that she make it, and David feels torn, given
his new feelings about parental responsibility. He appreciates her need to go; but will he figure out a way
to assure his own safety in the meantime if she does?
The book and film on which this story is based
is from a Christian point of view, with a quote from the Bible: “…but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans
5:20), which indicates the overarching principle behind it. I appreciated it for its presentation
of three-dimensional characters, and its picture of human beings in whole. People are so much more than one aspect
of their reputation. It also shows
how relationships are a process over time; that people can and do change.
David Oyelowo,
one of filmdom’s most talented actors, delivers here, and is to be praised for
taking the role of the apparent bad guy.
He and Kata Mara give very nuanced renditions of people in the hostage
circumstance. Although this is a
religiously based work, Jerry Jameson, the director, and perhaps the writers
(Brian Bird and Ashley Smith) as well, use restraint from that standpoint, and have
composed a work that is more humanly dramatic than anything else.
A film with
grace in the midst of human failings.
Grade: A- By Donna
R. Copeland
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