Captives

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.

This is the last time I take into consideration negative reviews + a low rating. I was very undecided about going to see this movie due to this bad habit of reading reviews on IMDb. It is not the first time a low rated movie turns out to be great, but it is certainly the greatest contrast between reviews and the actual movie. This just proves that most users are probably persons who don't understand a well constructed narrative and don't have an eye for beautiful cinematography. Ryan Reynolds does a great job and so do his co-stars. I also admire Mr. Atom Egoyan for writing, directing and producing this movie. It is a good movie. Go watch it and don't let the rating create low expectations. Hopefully it will exceed the current 5.8.

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.

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.

Once again the actual ratings on IMDb are not correct at all to me. This movie deserves a lot more then a 5.8 rating. If it was not for the ending that wasn't that great I would have give it an eight. But for the rest I was really entertained by The Captive. The story is well written and keeps you interested during the whole movie. I'm not a huge fan of movies where the story goes back and forth from past to present but in this one it didn't really bothered me. The cast was well chosen and they all gave us a good performance, especially Mireille Enos. Ryan Reynolds a bit lesser but it was okay. I really felt the disgust for pedophiles through the whole movie. Disgusting predators that should be locked up for life. The movie gives you a good view about their disturbed minds and their complete absence of feelings for their victims. A good movie to watch, don't trust the ratings on here.