Secuestro express

"Secuestro Express" is a neat little twisty thriller in the exaggerated style of gritty British crime dramas like "Layer Cake," with a pointed political and social overlay.

Using swooping, in-your-face close-up cameras, limited narration and dossier-style on screen character and time descriptors, writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz, in his full-length fiction debut, captures a docudrama feel to make the kidnapping of a young, lighter-skinned couple by a motley group of "nigros" (darker-skinned) thugs, with a variety of psychological and financial motives for doing this "work", a commentary on class in Latin America, specifically in Caracas, Venezuela.

The individuality of all the characters, including the criminals, adds to the explosive unpredictability as stereotypes of Latin American culture are ironically skewered, including oligarchies, macho men, religion and sensuality, as each person uses political and class rhetoric to justify greed, selfishness and condescension on all sides.

Drugs are caustically shown to have pervasively corrupted and enthralled all levels of the society through a harrowing picaresque exploration of "the ghetto" (as the subtitles translated the geography).

The acting is excellent, particularly Mía Maestro, of TV's "Alias," who goes through an entire spectrum of emotions. Jean Paul Leroux as her boyfriend "Martin" is very good at shifting gears as our sympathies shift around him.

The song selection felt very atmospheric and the soundtrack kept the tension ratcheted up.

The "fire next time" coda didn't quite work or add much to what we think the characters learned that night except assuring us that life ominously goes on among all the classes despite the continuing sharp differences.

"Secuestro Express" began as a project for a short. Jonathan Jakubowickz had written a story and Sandra Condito and Elizabeth Avellán, among others, wanted to make it happen. For reasons that don't matter to me, the short became a full-length feature film, the hours became longer, the work became harder…

The result makes notorious that it was supposed to be a short, because it runs obligatorily too long. However, it's a total thrill and it keeps your eyes on the screen for its hour and a half. After Jakubowickz made his story longer, the characters took shape, and what could have been a tale of soulless kidnappers, is a glance at human beings who care for their city, even when they do what they do.

Jakubowickz' ferocious camera is a representation of the Venezuelan reality; it moves unsure, it accelerates constantly. With guts and courage, the director puts his imagination in motion, and shows to us the two sides of the city; the rich and the poor, the good and the bad, the ones who eat and the ones who can't, the ones who live and the ones who are dying. The Latin American reality is not far from what Jakubowickz presents. In fact, there are thousands of kidnappings like the ones this movie illustrates, every day.

"Express"; quick, effective and only sometimes successful. The types of persons, who do this; act, dress and talk like the film's kidnapping threesome: Nigga Sibilino, Budú and their leader Trece. Interestingly, this is how these three men call themselves artistically. They are part of a hip-hop band called "3 Dueños". Jakubowickz got to them by listening to their music, and the characters he wrote for them fit perfectly with their personalities; he knows it and they know it.

One of the many highlights of this picture is that all the characters are very close to the actors' realities. The three kidnappers come originally from the suburbs, and they didn't have to make an effort for their portrayals; they had it in them. A permanent improvisation is clearly noticeable and it reassures the "reality" of the film. When the three of them grab Martín (Jean Paul Leroux) and Carla (Mía Maestro) and scream: "Don't look at my face", they say it because it works like that.

They are not joking with the guns they carry with them, they are not joking when they call Carla's father (the genius Ruben Blades), and they are not joking with the drugs they purchase from Marcelo (Ermahn Ospina), a Colombian and homosexual dealer. The scenes that the movie develops are determined by a voice that announces the time ("5 a.m., in Caracas"). The best moments are the ones you feel connected to, because you identify with them. When they are stopped by the police, for example; and a simple exchange fixes the situation.

When Trece talks to Carla about the city and about what's going on. "What's the secret?", she inquires. Trece explains, and you easily realize that Carlos Molina put the most commitment into his character. He achieves something there, there's an emotion felt that Pedro Pérez and Carlos Madera lack. If what the film's doing is leaving a message, I respect it. But that message won't make anyone change, because it takes a lot more in a world like this one.

What I can say for sure are two things: "Secuestro Express" is a calling to Venezuelan cinema, these days when it's so difficult to make a complete movie; and it is so real and so true, that you will be scared to be out on the street after watching it.

This film, along with "Man on Fire" proves that kidnapping surely makes for good drama. "Secuestro Express" shows the underbelly of a society that is decaying as we speak, a place torn apart by economics and class differences, and a place that is unforgiving and cruel to most of its population.

The 24-hour drama follows a kidnapped couple and their victimizers as their drama unfolds. "Secuestro Express" is rawer than its American predecessor, with its crude language, relentless references to social abuse and sexual references. There are times when I couldn't help feeling sick in my stomach because here was a film where anything could happen. The dialog is frank, the portrayals are very realistic, and the tone of the film is very dark. There are almost no moments when one can feel any respite from the tragedies happening on the screen.

Maestro does a wonderful job as the victim who fully understands what is happening to her and her fiancé and might at times relate to her captors' experience. The last 15 minutes of the film are likely to provoke some heated discussion, as the film reaches its climax. Special mention should go to the actor portraying Budu, a new villain to match in the annals of cinema.

Overall the film delivers and barely misses reaching perfect score because of its production values. Nevertheless its very assured direction, impressive camera-work, and excellent acting prove that bloated budgets and talentless actors might be an endangered species.

The video quality in Secuestro Express is truly disappointing from the very beginning. The movie starts with blurry images of shanty towns in Caracas, I thought the blur was an intentional effect, and maybe perfect in-focus images were soon going to kick in, showing in sharp details the "ranchos and cerros", but nope... detail never arrived, the video quality was actually as bad as what I was thinking could be a blur special effect. Gave it the benefit of the doubt thinking it could be the theater's fault, but once again nope: letters in Twisted-Metal-Black evoking style started popping up on screen naming each character in the movie, and those letters were decently sharp and in focus. So it wasn't the theater but the film, no doubt. Thumbs down to extremely poor video quality.

Good points: acting of some of the bad guys, some of them were believably bad guys in some occasions, not in all occasions though. Overall cursing and foul language was also very realistic and spot-on. The girls acting was also good in some occasions, but not in all as well though. A nice aesthetic touch right before the nightmare, the song by Soledad Bravo in the drugstore was particularly beautiful.

Bad points: rich vs. poor philosophizing in the movie was extremely lame. Also, making the rich girl of a wealthy young couple in Caracas a generous and selfless/sacrificed voluntary nurse is pushing her character "just a bit", to say the least. To my surprise, acting of Ruben Blades was rather lame. Acting of the boyfriend I think was also extremely lame. Some of the unexpected twists in the movie seemed a little forced and extreme. That's completely subjective of course, just my impression. At the end, pervert cops nightmare possibility saved by a pseudo heroic act of one of the bad guys was also rather forced and imho lame, very unnecessary.

Let this film serve as a public service announcement, at the very least. When driving anywhere in any major Latin American city, don't drive a big, shiny, expensive SUVs because you're only begging to make yourself a target. Secuestro Express is less than 24 hours in the life of a rich, young couple and the car-jackers who take them hostage. It's quick-passed, violent, bloody, and even funny at times. It feels real and tangible.

While in the custody of their kidnappers, the young couple is taken to a flamingly gay cocaine dealer who ends up having sex with the male hostage. The beautiful woman hostage is taken to an abandoned and rundown apartment where she is almost raped and is tripping on the ecstasy pills she was forced to take.

In other words, Secuestro Express is not appropriate for small children, but it is a hell of a ride along the lines of Traffic and Pulp Fiction. But it takes place in the seemingly lawless town of Caracas, Venezuela, and that makes it even scarier.