CAPTIVITY

Successful model Jennifer Tree, stalked and secretly filmed by a mysterious individual, is kidnapped and locked in a room, isolated from the rest of the world. Here Jennifer is subjected to torment, mostly psychological, by her captor, until she discovers she is not the only prisoner: in fact, in a room next to hers, Gary is locked up. The two become friends and try in every way to escape from their jailer. Everything starts as a "torture porn" in full swing, a "Saw" rich in disgusting and painful torture on a beautiful and defenseless blonde. The sense of déjà-vu is very strong, almost suffocating, and yet one can notice a certain playful fantasy in the staging and, aware that for at least a decade we will witness clones of "Saw", there is nothing left but to sink comfortably into the armchair and watch the latest massacre. Then some extra elements come into play that, in an attempt to complicate the story otherwise too simple and schematic, only make it overly predictable and sink into the banality of television fiction that minimal plot which promised a simple show with a high dose of unsustainability. We start, therefore, with a "torture porn" that cleverly mixes "Saw" and our "The Torturer" to find a flat and apathetic conclusion that folds in on itself in the most shameless praise of predictability in celluloid. "Captivity" is therefore a bad movie? No, it is simply a useless movie, poorly managed and hastily made to exploit the trend of high-blood-content thrillers. The uselessness is evident in the too little inspired screenplay by a always active Larry Cohen ("In linea con l'assassino"; "Cellular") who does nothing but stitch together a series of thriller-horror postmodern clichés in the hope that the viewer is not too demanding. The paradox is that the subject had a couple of points in its favor that are not minimally explored! First of all, the killer kidnaps a model whom we see at the beginning of the film invading the entire city with her photographs and immediately afterward engaged in a photo shoot already in the "retouching" phase. Fashion, the model, the symbol of appearance and appearance, a simulacrum that appears to the common man as a simple object. The kidnapping and torture on an object of modern vacuity of custom would have lent itself to more than one reflection, but "Captivity" does not seem minimally interested. Second point that would have deserved exploration is the way the killer acts, his relationship with the victim's personality and fears. The killer is very informed about the model's life, keeps her interviews, statements, and knows her fears; the natural consequence is the staging of Jennifer's same fears: the dark, loneliness, the aesthetic aspect, the affective attachment to her little dog... but all this is only hinted at, even, if you get distracted you don't even realize the killer's plan. Another point against "Captivity" is the fundamental lack of minimally memorable or really "strong" scenes. Gore is present and cruelty is not lacking; the scene of the human offal smoothie is notable, but there is nothing that has not already been shown (better) in any "Saw". The film, moreover, appears incredibly modest where it could have thrown itself with nonchalance into erotic sadism. It's fine that we are no longer in the '70s and that a starlet on the crest of the wave like Elisha Cuthbert would hardly lend herself to such scenes, but the situation would have been well suited to staging the morbidity and sexual desire of the captor; instead, the only erotic scene in the film is so forced and embarrassingly modest that it only becomes annoying to the narrative economy of the film. In short, "Captivity" works little. The packaging is impeccable, as always happens with productions of a certain caliber: the actors are of good extraction (even if Daniel Gillies in the role of Gary is not very convincing) and the direction by Roland Joffé ("Mission"; "Vatel") is always careful, as one would expect from a solid professional, even if here he is not definitely in the genre that is closest to him. But simple aesthetics are not enough to fully convince and the feeling of dissatisfaction is prevalent. An applause, however, to the Italian poster of the film.