In The Sweet Hereafter, Canadian director Atom Egoyan brilliantly dealt with the subject of parental grief over the loss of a child, a theme he revisits in this exquisitely crafted but slow and dramatically inert melodrama that is as chilly as its snowy locations. Ryan Reynolds stars as Matthew, whose 9-year-old daughter is kidnapped from his car while Matthew briefly goes into a diner. The crime poisons his marriage and leads the detectives assigned to the case to suspect him of selling the child, but the culprit is actually Mika (Kevin Durand, way over-the-top), an ultra-creepy key member of a pedophile ring, who keeps the girl alive for eight years and then uses his technological know-how to torment her parents. Mika also engineers the abduction of one of the cops (Rosario Dawson)—the head of a police task force targeting crimes against children—in an apparent bid to discredit her team. The Captive aims for suspense, but lethargic pacing and an overly clinical style drain it of all tension. A disappointing effort from a gifted director, this is not a necessary purchase. (F. Swietek)
The Captive
Lionsgate</span></span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt'>, 112 min., R, DVD: $19.98, <span class=SpellE>Blu</span>-ray: $24.99, Mar. 3 Volume 30, Issue 3
The Captive
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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