L'enlèvement

As a film movie lover, depending on what city I am living in, I broaden my horizons by going to watch films at any festival. Since moving to Vancouver to pursue an education in film production at UBC, I have been excited to visit VIFF and watch a film. After scrolling through the website, I decided to see 'Kidnapped,' an Italian film by Marco Bellocchio. I haven't seen his films before, but I was excited to see this one. The film includes an intense historical drama of a Jewish toddler kidnapped by Pope Pius IX in 1865 because it was believed he had received a secret baptism. It was one of the best films I have seen and deserves more recognition. This rich, operatic film resonates strongly with the audience through the director's storytelling and the emotions portrayed by the actors in the movie.

It's been presented as one of the movie of the year but despite the premises it doesn't fly. The founding idea is good, it's an historical movie about changes, political power and secularism. Cast is great but I couldn't keep away from my nose the scent of Italian bad tv. Despite all to me these are not the major flaws, the main problem is I was not hooked by the subject and therefore this was not interesting to me. Probably 20 years ago this would have been way controversial showing a Pope in crisis of conscience during the making of the Republic of Italy and the atomization of Church. I need to add that it was quite inflated by media as well therefore my expectations were high. It's still a well made movie just not for me. But you should give it a try especially if you are a parent.

Marco Bellocchio has made some interesting movies in the past like "Fists in the Pockets" and "The Traitor" which I have enjoyed. This movie focuses on the Mortara case and the controversial aspects behind the Catholic Church which are complex yet interesting subjects to learn about. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't really do justice to it's concept and it was underwhelming.

Throughout, the production and costumes are pretty good as they help to capture the environment and time period of the old times. Bellocchio's direction is pretty solid as Bellocchio does offer his talents on showing the themes of political power, religion corruption, and secularism within the historical context. The narrative, unfortunately, does feel as impactful as Bellocchio hoped for as the narrative, while does have some interesting ideas, it felt mostly too standard and too bland that it made the movie pretty difficult to fully connect with emotionally. Around the first 35 minutes of the movie was pretty interesting but then the movie struggles to keep heads up high which creates the narrative further dull.

The performances from the cast members were a mix of good and bad with some of the performances like Barbara Ronchi were good but the others were either bland or pretty wooden as it felt like some kind of poor television movie at times. The child performance wasn't great either. Some of the dialogue moments were pretty bad and the characters weren't interesting which I struggled to fully connect with them.

There are some good soundtrack moments, some of the pacing could improve and some of the editing was pretty bad. There were some serious moments that were meant to be emotional, gut-wrenching and sad but it ended up accidentally being unintentionally hilarious at times. Good atmosphere at least.

Undeniably, Bellocchio is definitely offering some of his talents within this movie but as a whole, it was mostly really mid and not something I would see again from his works.

Now here's a story that's set some time in the past, although it's not that long ago and it might leave you quite aghast, as a child is abducted by a dogma in sheep's clothing, it will leave you disenfranchised with feelings of hate and loathing; now the outcome isn't pretty but you may learn something new, about conditioning by others that impacted how you grew, the brainwashing and persuasion - indoctrination, education, that was planted in your mind before you fledged, matured and grew; but there's one thing that won't come as a surprise or revelation, that there's masons, cults and cliques that will lead you to damnation, they control the lives of others, keep their secrets under covers, once their hooks have found their mark, you'll get accustomed to prostration.

Kidnapping is a crime, and so is "Kidnapped".

Truly astonishing how a truly astonishing story translates into a truly astonishing piece of passable cinema on the big screen. A young Jewish boy, secretly baptized into the Catholic faith by his babysitter, is abducted from his family under religious rule. Crazy, but this is 1857 Bologna, 1857 Italy, and 1857 Pope.

The film is presented in grand oil painting style, with golden lighting, velvety robes a flowing, and evil lurking in the shadows. Looks great. Plays, not so much. Hard to imagine a juicier topic handled with such a soft touch. Everyone involved seems detached of real emotion, instead relying on business like restraint, especially in what should be an inflammatory kidnapping scene. Weird.

The set up is tantalizing enough to give hope, but steam is lost quickly as "Kidnapped" starts to spin its wheels while going nowhere slow.

A tale as such, and it is a true one, begs for a grand, epic treatment, where religion, country and family come together in a clash of Biblical proportions. Instead we get an educational history lesson with easily forgettable characters.

• hipCRANK.