Captives

Sometimes your hunch can be completely off. Doesn't matter if you're a good cop otherwise. And this is just one of the sub-stories that are woven into the story. A story that is very close to reality, which makes this tough to watch. Ryan Reynolds is our driving force as his character (and his wife) cannot forget and forgive what happened to them. Who's fault is it though? Can it be on persons fault at all? The time-line hopping tries to keep the suspense up, which doesn't always succeed though.

The performances are great and you always can relate to the people involved. It might get a bit too much towards the end (not sure everyone will like how this goes on towards the finale), but it's generally a decent thriller and a "good" watch

This movie has a good concept and the initial ground work is there. Problem is they jump from past to future without the viewer realizing it in many instances so it gets confusing trying to keep the story line straight (all they needed to do was add a year or something to the bottom corner of the screen). A few scenes do not make sense leading up to the finish of the movie as it is confusing if your are watching past or current events unfolding. Ryan Reynolds basically made this a decent movie with his acting skills, the rest of the cast are kind of annoying to watch. All said, what really made me positive I would never watch this again is that it just goes from being at a pinnacle point that they could have built up a huge amount of suspense and finished with a bang to a quick non suspenseful ending that just closed a few loose ends and ended the movie.

Man, I wanted this to be good. The idea is definitely there it was just executed badly. The acting and people involved were chosen well, Ryan Reynolds especially I thought did a good job. But that's all the positives from me.

There's just too many issues and plot holes in this, that you can't get past. The "villain" who has the daughter in captive. What's his deal? Why does he act bizarre? There's nothing explained about him at all. This is a common occurrence for a lot of the characters in this. Nobody is explained. No depth.

The lack of character depth then spilt into the plot itself. Certain conversations made no sense, because we have no depth to go off. An example is the convo in the prison (not a spoiler) who is this guy who is giving out demands and acting the top dog, when this scene is literally the only sodding scene he's in. WHO IS HE? Why does he have power? This sets up the next part, but you're left wondering why!

Other major issue was the flashbacks, they were not done correctly at all. Usually when it flashes back it should let us know, even if it's subtle and the characters look different. But no, it's literally the exact same just next shot. So half the time you are clueless that the scene isn't present and is past.

I feel like 5 is slightly generous won't lie, but I'm in a good mood today. It's a watchable film don't get me wrong, but it has a lot of issues. It's a shame because the idea is there, just the execution isn't.

Naturally, I was intrigued by "The Captive", great plot and amazing actors, what could possibly go wrong? From the start, I could tell this movie was going to have a ton of flashbacks, which is fine, until those flashbacks kinda become irrelevant because the viewer has no idea which flashback comes first. Strike 1. The introduction of Scott Speedman was a treat, until he was a bit weird acting and since that was never explained, I guess that was just his character?.. Then the part where Ryan Reynolds character has an abusive past was brought up (in reference to plot), then was never to be heard of again. Strike 2. Still don't know much about the wife's character. Strike 3. No explanation about the relationship of the two detectives (Dawson & Speedman) but since Dawson seemed to have a picture of Speedman's niece in her office, it's to be assumed they're in a relationship. OK. And for the focus to be the family of the missing girl, I feel it rarely focused on them. Strike 4.

This movie just needed a lot of tweaking. Starting with some back story of the characters at the beginning. And less flashbacks. More explanations. And more focus on how the unit was actually working towards finding the missing child.

Let me start by stating this isn't the greatest movie ever made - You've only got to look at some of the other reviews to see that. However...

I actually really enjoyed it (maybe because I'm the father of a 10 year old girl, and so could perhaps relate easier, IDK??). Anyway, it really got me hooked from the beginning. Sorry all you haters but it deserves better than a 5/10 score.

Many people moan about the confusing timeline. I honestly can't say I struggled with the story going back and forth. The actors appearances altered accordingly with age, hairstyles, etc... the story actually seemed fairly straight forward to follow without any difficulty. I can easily get muddled up in an awkward film if I lose interest - maybe that's what happened to all the negative critics on here??? Overall, an enjoyable movie (despite the disturbing story) that I'll undoubtedly recommend to family and friends.