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).

Stanislas Graff (Yvan Attal) is a man of importance, he's a powerful industrialist who meets with world leaders. After breakfast with his wife Françoise (Anne Consigny) and teenaged daughters, Stan is kidnapped on his way to work in broad daylight, and his misfortune holds him, his family, and his business--"Rapt." Belgian writer/director Lucas Belvaux latest isn't the typical thriller one might expect. Stan may occupy and move in elevated social circles, but when he's snatched from his everyday life, those who interact with him every day find that they didn't really know him at all. Business and personal relationships shift and slide and when Stan finally comes home--a shell of his former self, the old adage about dog being man's best friend is proved once again. All these shifting loyalties are what make "Rapt" so compelling. After his high-profile kidnapping, the media uncovers his playboy lifestyle--and his wife, Françoise Graff is shown the apartment where he met his girls on the side. There's an acknowledgement that she knew something of this before, but being the wife of such a man, she couldn't bring herself to do anything about it, at least not while the money was still good, Something the film implies in one of its only attempts to understand the workings and motivations of its characters. Françoise discovers that the board of trusties would only provide the ransom money as a loan, and discovers her family is far less wealthy than she thought. The Graff girls Véronique (Sarah Messens) and Martine (Julie Kaye), are devastated to discover who their father really is, just as any common man, by watching the news reading the papers. The damage being done, besides a chopped-off finger--is to Stanislas's public and private image, which in turn begins to quietly dampen the family's eagerness to have him returned. Stan is eventually transferred to Le Marseillais (Gérard Meylan), who provides better living conditions, but nonetheless he is still a prisoner. Graff is reminded that he's no longer front page news--and after yet another money transfer is botched, he is told that he'll either be killed or freed. The kidnappers' ultimate decision is a whopper, but Stan has a series of shocks ahead. "Rapt" is a work of dexterous, subtle intelligence. Don't expect an action film and its psychological character portraits. It's a well-made thriller--with its leisurely pace and total lack of gratuitous sex and violence. It seems well-suited for those film-goers with a more modest sensibility who prefer refinement, as opposed to common American movie traits of speed and savagery. While it doesn't really say much about men such as Stanislas, what happens in its last reel suggests a realness to his unemotional side--unapologetic for his gambling and cheating despite any lessons the ordeal might have offered about the collateral damage inflicted upon those who are closest to him. There is a lack of a bond, or relationship with Stan, his family, and the audience. It's hard to feel sympathy for the protagonist. despite his situation, because he's not a likable person. What Stanislas's attitude seems to ultimately say is that he acted the way he did simply because his position in life allowed him to. His only regret is having been caught.

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.

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.

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