Captives - Gefangen

I just got finished viewing Captives and I liked it A lot. I guess it was Tim Roth's interaction with Ormond that drew me in and stopped me from switching channels. A lot of dialogue was spoken not with words, but with expressions. And the more I think about it, the more I feel the movie kept a constant level of tension throughout. As for believability, I know love can be blind, having been in love myself and that thought, for me, kept the movie alive. I give it a big thumb's up.

Even if you're not a fan of the great Tim Roth, "Captives" is a must see film. The story draws you in, along with the strong believable performances by Roth and Julia Ormond. The strong chemistry between those two is electric - you can literally feel the sparks. Bittersweet and touching, but also suspenseful. Be sure to check out this drama.

Anyone remember Julia Ormond ? She was a British actress touted as the next big thing in Hollywood and starred in the female friendly movies LEGENDS OF THE FALL and SABRINA . CAPTIVES is another chick flick movie starring Ormond and to be honest I think it's her best starring role

Ormond plays Rachel Clifford a newly qualified dentist who sometimes works in a prison . After finishing work she does her shopping at a supermarket and bumps into one of the inmates called Philip Chaney who is nearing his release date . After striking up a connection ... Ah but that would be telling

I found CAPTIVES a thoroughly engrossing drama for the most part . Yeah anything involving a romance between two mismatched people isn't usually my kind of movie and I doubt if it was produced for a target audience of 30 something blokes , but that's not to criticise it in anyway . The central plot of two people coming closer and closer together as seen here is convincing and the characters are well defined helped no doubt by the understated performances of Ormond and Roth . Alas it's not flawless

The problem is about two thirds of the way through there's a plot twist as if the producers said to themselves " Hold on let's try and liven things up a bit so it'll appeal to streetwise wannabe gangsta boys " . The screenplay did not need livening up since everything was going so well . Yeah as the demographic breakdown on this site shows far more females enjoyed this than males but there's no way CAPTIVES can be described as soppy , it's set in a prison for goodness sake and the shock ending should have been the revelation of what Chaney was in jail for and how this affected the new relationship . Like the famous cult film SCUM this is another movie featuring the British penal system whose natural ending takes place two thirds of the way in and has a rather illogical final third tacked on in the hope of shocking the audience

So that's the major problem with CAPTIVES and why it loses it's potential when it had fulfilled much of it earlier on . It was also produced by the BBC and unsurprisingly it has this made for TV feel instead of a cinematic sensation which may disappoint some people . I did enjoy watching it at the time but when I came to type this review I'd almost forgotten why mainly due to the ending , same as it appears everyone seems to have forgotten Julia Ormond

This is a movie that I really enjoyed. It was well written and very intense. Although the idea of a prison romance could have been a turn-off, in this film you feel compassion for the characters who are portrayed by these two fabulous actors. Julia Ormond was wonderful, and Tim Roth was HOT! I definitely have a thing for him, I think he is so sexy, not only is he a talented actor, but he also has this quality that makes him so attractive. If you feel the same way I do, or you like Julia Ormond, or if your just looking for a good movie with suspense and talented actors, then you will like this movie.

I saw this film when it came out on British TV in the 1990s and it's remained embedded in my memory ever since. All young Hollywood directors should be contractually obliged to see "Captives" to see what real on-screen chemistry is like: the heat and intensity generated between leads Tim Roth and Julia Ormond just isn't something you see in every modern film, so much so that there were moments when I almost wanted to look away, embarrassed for their intimacy and urgency, shout "get a room!" – ah, but there's the rub – they can't. He's in prison; she's the visiting prison dentist, and they're caught in an impossible position that there's no easy escape from.

Others here have described the story well, so I won't cover that ground again. But it's exactly the kind of "little" British film I love to watch: when they're good, you're rewarded with an unusually good cast, a decent script and a neat premise that draws you in and grips you. The slightly unconvincing conclusion doesn't detract from how very enjoyable and stirring this film is.

"Captives" illustrates why Tim Roth deserved his reputation as an actor; but I'm sorry not to have seen more of Julia Ormond on screen since the 90s. Is it that she's in that twilight zone of female actresses, who suffer from the lack of good parts for women who don't look twenty years younger than their age?