Years ago, Warner Brothers re-released its two landmark gangster films of the thirties, "Little Caesar" and "Public Enemy" with a brief prologue that said the gangster was a problem "we the public must eventually solve." Writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz's "Secuestro Express" ends with a epilogue that notes that "half the people of the world suffer from malnutrition, the other half from obesity." It's a stunning message, but it almost gets lost because the film it caps is a stunning thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat and for the most part, keeps you from focusing much on the social issues involved.
Set in Caracas,Venezuela, the film examines what has become almost a regional pastime in Latin America, kidnapping. In this case, its quick, down and dirty snatches of middle class people whose families can pony up relatively modest amounts of money in exchange for getting their loved ones back in one piece. It's literally "Express kidnapping." This particular abduction is of a trendy young upper middle class couple snatched as they snort coke and toke marijuana in their SUV outside a trendy nightclub. That all plays a role in the story, for the nominal leader of the trio of thugs castigates the victims for rubbing their wealth in people's faces by wearing expensive clothes and driving pricey cars. But the kidnappers are not revolutionaries, just minor hoodlums who, in a bid to collect just 40-thousand dollars in ransom, terrorize two perfectly normal people.
Carlos Julio Molina, Pedro Perez and Carlos Madera are outstanding as the hoodlums, as different from standard Hollywood criminals as night is from day. Jean Paul Leroux is also good as the male half of the trendy couple, a man with secrets of his own.
But the star of this film is the female kidnap victim, played by the beautiful and unreasonably talented Mia Maestro. She danced her way through "Tango," she has sung her way through numerous stage musicals and this time, she gets to act her way though 24 hours of hell. She handles the role magnificently, her emotions skipping from rage to flirtatious manipulation, to utter horror when she believes she is about to be raped and murdered.
For those who have seen her on "Alias," playing Jennifer Garner's sister in spying, Maestro more than lives up to the promise she showed there.
This movie is a jolting, sometimes shocking picture that often makes you uncomfortable, but never bores you. See this thriller, but don't ignore its message.
