Review: The Captive

Writer-director Atom Egoyan has often used a non-linear narrative (Exotica) and enshrouded his work with a moody cerebralism (Felicia's Journey, The Sweet Hereafter). Yet those hallmarks feel like gimmicks in his latest work, The Captive.

Set in an eternally wintry Ontario, the film centers around the disappearance of Cassandra (Alexia Fast). Her abduction unravels her parents' marriage - Tina (Mireille Enos) can't stop blaming her husband Matthew (Ryan Reynolds) for leaving their daughter alone in the truck to buy a pie for dinner. Detectives Dunlop and Cornwall (Rosario Dawson and Scott Speedman) question Matthew's version of the events.

Eight years on, Cassandra is very much alive and held captive by Mika (Kevin Durand). Surrounded by monitors that broadcast her mother's ongoing grief like some demented reality show, Cassandra has become both the star of the town pedophiles' online viewings and recruiter for her captor's future victims.

Needless to say, the movie tests the extent to which your eyes can roll back into your head. Though it tackles themes such as pedophilia, child pornography and voyeurism, the horror is sterile rather than chilling. Contributing to the mess are Cassandra's cringe-inducing voiceovers and Durand's Mika, so broadly written and played that he all but advertises "VILLAIN" from the get-go. The other actors fare no better - they deliver what can only be described as simulations of emotions.

Coming on the heels of the similarly themed but far more harrowing Prisoners, The Captive comes off as a made-for-television adaptation of a summer stock production. It may have been a far different and more interesting film had Egoyan focused on Detective Dunlop - herself a former victim and still not immune to predators. Instead, he discards that potential in a cage and throws away the key.

The Captive

Directed by: Atom Egoyan

Written by: Atom Egoyan, David Fraser

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Scott Speedman, Rosario Dawson, Mireille Enos, Kevin Durand, Alexia Fast