Captive Mini-series Review

Captive (2016) 
Mini-series - 8 episodes (2016)
Watch Captive on Netflix

This documentary focuses on hostage and negotiation scenarios, following eight different people in eight different countries.

Captive Netflix Mini-series Review

Captive (2016)
Mini-series - 8 episodes

Watch Captive on Netflix
Created by: Doug Liman
Rated: TV-MA

Plot
This documentary focuses on hostage scenarios, following eight different cases in eight different countries.

Verdict
This is an interesting topic with a lackluster result. While it balances interviews with reenactment, there are far too many pauses that feel like an attempt to wring out further emotional impact. The best episodes are the first two as they also interview the kidnapper(s) in addition to the victim(s).
It's depressing subject matter that will make you think twice about traveling to countries with unrest or volunteering to help impoverished nations, but the stories quickly become quite similar.
This documentary needs to take the next step and begin looking at how a culture of kidnapping occurs or focus on how law enforcement could deal with it more effectively.
We are presented with a problem, but provided no speculation on how to change it. That's the next step this documentary should have taken.
It depends.

Review
Based on the trailers I was anticipating a series primarily from the negotiators point of view. I wanted to know what their objectives are in a crisis situation. How do you handle the kidnapper and in turn the victim's family? Instead this series focuses primarily on the victims. The best episodes are the ones that talk to the kidnapper too, though any many cases that isn't possible.

Additional perspectives and a tighter focus would have helped. Each episode feels long, and they are, all at least a full hour. The slowness is amplified when the camera pauses silently on a hand gesture during a reenactment or lingers over a weapon. There are too many shots trying to be artistic instead of telling the story or revealing any information. A tighter edit would help this flow better. This slowness robs the show of energy and emotion. Surprisingly all of the victims seem detached and quite accepting of what happened to them. That might be the craziest thing about this show, the total lack of emotion. Maybe that's how you deal with such a terrible event, by blocking it. In one of the most heartbreaking segments, a woman states she did just that during an assault. The series could have interviewed a psychologist to provide some insight on the people featured and the mind at large.

Each episode recreates the victims ordeal day by day. Each story is horrible in it's own way, and I would have liked a professional's take. While families state that governments can't negotiate or pay a ransom because kidnappings would become more frequent, it would have added a lot to have law enforcement discuss the situations. While the first episode included law enforcement just do to their firsthand involvement, the others didn't.

The first episode is the only one taking place in the United States. It tells the story of a prison riot that resulted in a ten day stand off and five inmates going to death row. In the second episode, the kidnapper was a professional, ransoming the woman in the account for twenty million. He went to jail and reformed himself. Three of the eight episodes involved volunteers or aid workers being kidnapped. Episode seven explored the military's attempt to rescue hostages in Yemen, and episode three involved Somalia pirates.

This show never quite connected like I thought it would. I got bored of the constant pauses for artistic flourishes. This is a somber story that should have been told with straight forward shots. It crafts this narrative that's more entertainment than a factual recounting. The stories are purely emotional, not trying to change laws and procedures in place or revealing an unknown tragedy. It's just superficial, refusing to delve deeper into the issue. How frequently do kidnappings occur? Which countries are the worst and how does it correlate to civil unrest? What kind of bond do hostage form with kidnappers?
I'm left wanting something more, more about the conditions of these other countries or even what's being done to prevent these crimes from happening in the future. It needs to take the next step.

Captive Season 1 - Trailer

Captive (2016-)
Season 1 (2016)

Captive Season 1 premieres December 9

This 8 episode documentary focuses on hostages and negotiation scenarios.

From Doug Liman, this series follows 8 different people in 8 different countries, as ransoms are dictated and hostages hope to survive. As the trailer claims, someone will pay.

Room (2015)

Genre

Drama

Director

Lenny Abrahamson

Country

Canada | Ireland

Cast

Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Sean Bridgers, Tom McCamus, Amanda Brugel, Joe Pingue, Megan Park, Cas Anvar, Wendy Crewson

Storyline

Like any good mother, Ma (Brie Larson) dedicates herself to keeping Jack (Jacob Tremblay) happy and safe. Their life, however, is anything but typical, as they are trapped and confined to a windowless space that Ma has named Room. Ma has created a whole universe for Jack within Room, but as Jack's curiosity about their situation grows, and Ma's resilience reaches its breaking point, they enact a risky plan to escape, ultimately bringing them face-to-face with what may turn out to be the scariest thing yet: the real world.

Opinion

This is one of the films I've been waiting for the most for two reasons: Lenny Abrahamson directed it, and it has been highly acclaimed. I guess it's not going to be easy to say something that hasn't already been said, but I'll try.

Filled with love, hurt and determination to live, "Room" is one of those films that get under your skin and take your breath away, and does not just tell a story, but makes you reflect on the ugliness of mankind. 

I haven't read the book upon the film is based on yet, but having the novelist, Emma Donoghue, to write the screenplay was a smart choice, because nobody but her could have done justice to such a heartbreaking, yet heartwarming story.

The film consists of two apparently separated parts. The first part, somewhat claustrophobic, is set in a shabby room, where there are the whole lives of Jack and his mother. Nothing but extraordinary, this part tells the boundless love between a mother and her son, a deep bond made even deeper by the ugly circumstances. The second part is the after. It tells the psychological effect of the imprisonment, and shows the protagonist, Ma, with her fears, her neurosis and the difficulty to deal with the real world, which is even more scary than room.

The van scene, without any doubt one of the most emotional in recent films, is so strong, and filled with tension, hope and fear to make you hold your breath. The credits go to the point of view, Jack's, unaware both of evil and good, the spectacular direction and a screenplay that hardly could have been better.

"Room" is hard to watch at some points, especially because the horrors have happened in real life, but some other points, the funny, lighthearted ones, balance the film, and take part in the making one of the best films of the year.

As for the acting, only one word can describe it: astonishing. Brie Larson gives the performance of her lifetime, showing so many layers of Ma that it's impossible not to care about her, or about her son, and adds so much emotional depth to her character as she superbly shows the psychological damage of those seven long years held captive. Needless to say she proves she can do dramatic roles. Stealing the show, however, is 9-year-old Jacob Tremblay, who couldn't have played the role of Jack any better. He brought so much depth and emotions in the character that leaves you speechless. It's hard to believe he didn't get an Oscar nomination.

Now that you are done reading, I suggest you watch this film. It is unsettling, of course it is, but it is equally powerful. 

You're gonna love it. - What? - The world.