Captivity

It's a sad day when a director of Roland Joffé's stature (his films include The Killing Fields and The Mission) stoops to making watered-down torture porn along the lines of Saw or Hostel. In Captivity, supermodel Jennifer Tree (Elisha Cuthbert) is kidnapped and brutalized by a mysterious robed villain, after which we're simply treated to the sight of Jennifer being subjected to one indignity after another—including having to choose between killing her beloved dog or being killed herself—before being drugged or gassed back into unconsciousness. Following about a half-hour of this, Jennifer takes some comfort from a hunky male captive (Daniel Gillies) in a neighboring cell, leading to a plot twist that any savvy viewer will have guessed long before, as well as third-act grrrl power heroics and fuzzy flashbacks to explain the simpleminded psychological reasons behind the mayhem. Captivity is as predictable as it is ugly and tedious. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include 17 minutes of deleted scenes, a 15-minute behind-the-scenes featurette, a 12-minute “making-of” featurette, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an awful film.] (F. Swietek)