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Kate Mara is more captivating than captive here
C- Real life dramas like the saga of escaped killer Brian Nichols, who terrified the city of Atlanta for one frightful days in 2005, inherently make good source material for movies. But when filmmakers lose sight of what makes the story compelling in the first place, the result becomes Captive, a bland retelling of Nichols’ escape and recapture that’s neither suspenseful nor inspirational.
Captive is based on a book by Ashley Smith (Kate Mara), a former meth addict single mother held captive by Nichols (David Oyelowo) overnight in her apartment. Nichols had escaped from a downtown Atlanta courthouse earlier that day, killing four people, including a judge, and was the object of a massive manhunt. The next day, however, Smith talked Nichols into releasing her unharmed. After she contacted the authorities, Nichols was captured without incident.
Despite its thriller trappings, Captive is actually an inspirational film. Nichols’ escape and the subsequent manhunt are treated in rather perfunctory TV-movie fashion, perhaps reflecting the movie’s budgetary restraints. Although Captive has a few clichéd scenes of the harried detective (Michael Kenneth Williams) in charge of the investigation bemoaning his lack of knowledge, the progress of the manhunt is largely conveyed by showing frequent television news updates. While Captive isn’t particularly suspenseful, its inspirational themes are actually too low key as well. The movie’s best scenes occur shortly after Nichols takes Smith hostage, as she realizes how dangerous and unhinged he is and futilely attempts to escape. Oyelowo and Mara are excellent here. After that, however, Smith offers Nichols some meth she had stashed away to calm him down (which she pointedly refuses to take herself) and then reads to him from Rick Warren‘s The Purpose Driven Life. Although these events actually occurred (according to Smith), Captive‘s depiction of them is listless at a time when the film could have used some religious rousing. Most of the blame for this lackluster movie should go to director Jerry Jameson, a television veteran, who seems determined to turn this material into an inoffensive vintage TV episode. Thanks to the lead actors and the incredible nature of the real life events, Captive shows occasional signs of the thriller it could have become, but, for the most part, it proves far from captivating.
Continue reading on Captive: Mini-review
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