Its
population is less than ninety thousand, but evidently organized pedophilia a
growing danger in Niagara Falls, Ontario. They now have a sizable police task
force working full time on such crimes. The leader even becomes an Oprah style
celebrity. However, they have not produced sterling results. After eight years,
Matthew Lane’s daughter Cass is still missing. Past his breaking point, the
desperate father is more than willing to take the law into his own hands, if he
can finally find a target in Atom Egoyan’s The
Captive (trailer
here), which
opens tomorrow in New York.
It
has been a hard eight years for Lane and his wife Tina. She still blames him
for their daughter’s abduction and so does he. He only briefly popped out to
pick up a pie while she rested in the back seat of his truck after ice skating
practice. Tragically, it was long enough for the pederast ringleader stalking
them. As the years advanced and their marriage imploded, Tina started seeing
Det. Nicole Dunlop for counseling, but her partner (and lover) Det. Jeff
Cornwall still suspects Lane sold his daughter to a pedophile ring, because he
reminds him of a guy he used to know. Seriously, that’s the best he can do
after eight years?
Of
course, Lane’s investigative techniques basically amount to him driving around
looking for something suspicious, but he is still more effective than the cops,
who will make a series of spectacular blunders. Eventually, Det. Dunlop will
wind up in peril herself, following a head-scratchingly unlikely chain of
events.
Frankly,
it is a real shame Captive morphs
into such a klutzy thriller, because Ryan Reynolds’ lead performance could have
been a career game-changer in a tighter, more grounded film. He really digs in
and digs deep as Lane. You feel his pain and his rage, without any cheap
theatrics. He also makes the thriller mechanics work better than they deserve
to, particularly an oblique confrontation with his daughter’s abductor late in
the game.
Conversely,
Kevin Durand is an excellent actor, but his performance as Mika, the pervert
ringleader is beyond caricature. Everything about him, from his affected voice
to his sinister sliver of a moustache screams “Chester Molester.” Yet, he still
hob nobs with Niagara Falls’ elite without anyone getting suspicious. Rosario
Dawson is reasonably competent as Det. Dunlop. She may not look like she is
from Niagara Falls, Ont., but diversity in Canadian cinema is a good thing. As
if on cue, Scott Speedman also turns up, underwhelming us as Cornwall, arguably
the worst cop ever who wasn’t on the take, just to remind everyone this is a
Canadian film.
