Rapt

Rapt (2009)

This is like other European crime movies I've seen, very detailed and low key, and seemingly very realistic. This one is like the others in that it's sort of interesting all along but rarely compelling. There is, in a weird way, no drama, not in movie terms. The facts are dramatic--kidnapping, torturing the hostage, that kind of thing--but the movie plays it all out in a realistic way that emphasizes police procedure, gentle conversations with loved ones left behind, and lots of waiting with the hostage takers being meanies.

It's weird to belittle this movie because in a way it's really competent, even very good if this is what you want. Compared to American (Hollywood) kidnapping scenarios (that Mel Gibson movie comes to mind), this makes the Hollywood versions ridiculous. But at least the Hollywood intention to entertain, to create high drama, is fulfilled. Here, in "Rapt," we are not actually ever rapt (that is, suspended in some kind of riveted attention).

If you sort of know this isn't your kind of movie, I'd skip it. If you do like very realistic crime films that are made with great attention and lots of empty spaces (at least psychically), then you might well really like this. In the details, I found the conversations between the family and cops trying to rescue him really dull and not quite believable, and I found the scenes where the hostage takers were roughing up the hostage too prolonged and unnecessary. This alone dragged the whole experience down. For me.

It's worth noting that the movie scored many awards in France, and that the Rotten Tomatoes rating is really high for it. The IMDb rating seems more in line, to me, for now (about 6.7 at the time of this writing).

The players, the family, the business men, the politicians, the kidnappers, the police, the solicitor and of course, the victim. All with agendas, all seeking resolution and some seeking personal gain. Was the kidnapping the sole motivation? Was the avarice and greed of the business associates a prime motive? Were the family really the ideal family unit?

Ans, none of the questions were answered.

The wife's disdain for the apartment, the police motivation for showing it to her, all contribute to an ending that seeks more answers.

The collapse of the kidnapping, Stan's business position, the police case and the kidnappers' demands. If it was his own doing would the "calypso" note have appeared? For the French, the affairs of the heart are common place. the younger daughter's manner through out the episode. Did the family love the man or the riches and life style?

The complex but seemingly simple plot lines gave way to a multitude of questions and who would most benefit from the escapade?

Who was responsible?

RAPT is more an experience than a film. It is based on the true story of the 1978 kidnapping of French industrialist Edouard-Jean Empain, a millionaire playboy who is abducted and held for ransom for 60 days. Though it is a very fine thriller of the kidnapping/ransom genre this film is far more than that. It is an exploration of the lives of men of wealth who allow their moneyed status to be able to buy anything, behave in any way they wish, and trample lives of family and friends in the process. Is it a pretty picture to follow? No, certainly not, but it is a revealing fact that a crime of kidnapping can be secondary to a life of greed and consumption of power and money that feeds into lives such as the main character of this film and the governmental agencies to respond differently to these moneyed moguls.

Stanislaff Graff (Yvan Attal, in a mesmerizing role) is the wealthy industrialist married to the beautiful and wise Françoise (Anne Consigny), and also has a lover. He is kidnapped brutally from his limousine on the eve of his visit to China as part of the entourage of the French president. The kidnappers treat Graff cruelly, keeping him blindfolded and tied in a tiny tent in a dungeon of a basement: they demand a fifty million euro ransom. As an acct of proving their serious plot, they cut off one of his fingers. What follows is a terrifying sparring match between kidnappers, police and the board of the company of which Graff is the director. The main question for the board: is a human life worth more than fifty million euros? Will they be able to get that amount of money together in time anyway? While they decide this he degenerates physically and mentally in imprisonment. After sixty days Graff is released to a world now cognizant of his secret life of gambling and escapades and secret apartments that the press dredges up, revelations that are especially painful for his wife. Paying his ransom won't bury his secrets.

This film was written and directed by Lucas Belvaux who presents his story with more emphasis on subterfuge and the psychological aspects of the affair that may make the film seem slow moving (125 minutes) but at film's end we realize that the true crime is not so much that of the kidnap/ransom but the abuse of power and money when so many in the world are suffering from homelessness and hunger and foreclosures etc. The drama is significantly heightened by the work of cinematographer Pierre Milon and the moody musical score by Riccardo Del Fra. This is a demanding film but an important one, and the acting of everyone in the large cast is on the highest level - especially the stunning performances by Yvan Attal and Anne Consigny.

Grady Harp

The outline on the main page gives the guts of this story, apparently based upon a true-life event. Perhaps it was, but this story is as much a well-constructed thriller as it is a character study of various powerful people, particularly the victim of the kidnapping, Stan Graff (Yvan Attal) who is gradually revealed to be a thoroughly unpleasant business mogul, concerned only with his own self, his pleasures…and his dog.

In a quick series of opening vignettes, we see Stan at a hurried business lunch, thence to an apartment for a quick tryst with a woman (the clichéd lover every French male seems to have), then to a darkened room where he and others are playing poker, then to home to greet his wife and daughters, then to a solitary inner sanctum to be with his dog while he rests in solitary splendor.

The next morning, he is kidnapped, whisked away to a remote, rural location where he is held, blindfolded most of the time, and brutalized physically and mentally.

His wife, Francoise (Anne Consigny), at first is shown as a dutiful wife and mother; but, as the plot develops to reach the climax, she shows how little she truly cared about Stan's ordeal at the hands of kidnappers. Equally, Stan's daughters (played by Julie Kaye and Sarah Messens) show themselves to be more concerned with their mother or themselves.

Stan's business associates and so-called friends also bring similar attitudes to bear. When things get tough for them as they try to keep the company running, while Stan is held to ransom, the financial aspects of the company and its survival gradually predominate. Add to that mix are the revelations about Stan's infidelities and gambling debts that begin to surface in the press.

All in all, the film is therefore a study of what type of character lies beneath all the facades when emotions, needs and tensions run amok. Ironically, one of the most sympathetic characters is the kidnapper-in-charge – the only person who tries to make Stan's ordeal less terrifying that it could have been; although, it's terrifying enough for most viewers.

As expected, the production is classy, faultless, well-paced (although some will disagree), appropriately suspenseful and thoroughly entertaining. The scenes containing the police action, reaction, re-planning and shadowing of kidnappers attempting to pick up the ransom are riveting.

It's the ending, though, that will puzzle many, enrage others or, like myself, raise the possibility of an entirely different interpretation to the one that seems to be the case. Watching and listening carefully to what is done and said will reveal for you, I think, what truly happened. If you see the movie, you'll know what I mean.

Like Anthony Zimmer (2005), in which Yvan Attal also starred, Rapt is another excellent thriller with twists that match, and perhaps surpass the former. So, do yourself a favor and wrap your mind around Rapt. And let us all hope that neither Hollywood nor others try to produce another take.

Give this a nine for sure.

June 7, 2012

It actually seems to be a movie with something to say, & well done. But I found it so grim & sad, I had to stop watching.

OK, the rich CEO has mistresses. Not laudable, but not unusual for men in his position. Especially French, isn't it de riguer. He gambles a lot. Is indulgent, and his assets are less than expected. Also not usual. He loses reputation during the kidnapping. Look at Trump, dishonest, lies about anything. Cheats on pregnant wife, sexual pervert, steals from cancer kids, not the billionaire. He claims. More debt than assets, & he was President, still with huge support.

This is probably worth watching, I just could not. Too grim.