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).

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 movie is very slow moving and I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few people gave up on it, being bored and all. And if you expect a high adrenaline thriller, let me tell you: Look elsewhere. You won't find it here for sure.

What you will "find", is a movie that cares about characters and is very subtle. Maybe I'm reading things into it, but the sublime and underplayed changes that happened during the course of the movie are just incredible. There is not a big bang or something grandiose happening. It's in the details and the small things (acting and otherwise) that the story continues.

If you can bear with it and love it for it, you will be rewarded with a very human drama. A drama that might even stay with you, after you finished watching the movie.

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 a nasty and effective French thriller, although the nastiest moment comes early on and is subsequently not trumped. A rather unlikeable millionaire businessman is kidnapped; the film follows both his ordeal, and also the response of his family and associates. There are some thriller conventions here, particularly the slightly unbelievable professionalism of the kidnappers, but it's an effective movie nonetheless: tense and fast-moving, but also an interesting exploration of what might happen when someone loses all control of the narrative of their own life (and to wit, someone who has been used to doing exactly what he wants). I'm not sure there's any moral here, beyond the general unpleasantness of mankind (and more particularly, the rich), but the film not only entertains, but does so in an intelligent and provocative way.