Halle Berry has reinvented herself of late. No longer is she the action heroine she portrayed in X-MEN or CATWOMAN, instead favouring more vulnerable roles that have a grounded reality. In 2015's THE CALL she had a great turn as a 911 call operator who helps a hostage situation and now she returns for a similar role hunting down the kidnappers of her son.

 

In KIDNAP, Berry must go beyond any parents fears as she witnessed her son being taken in a park and when she learns of a greater conspiracy, the takers soon learn they picked on the wrong mother.

 

The best of KIDNAP is seeing Berry at her most vulnerable, unable to make rapid decisions and making human mistakes. The situation is terrifying because of its grounded reality and as the chase ensues (to which there are some of the most exciting car chase scenes of recent years), where most actions films would turn this into a bolstered excuse for adrenaline and action, KIDNAP plays it with tense "what-happens-next" finesse. Luis Prieto does a great job of bringing the best out of Berry who is the star of the show here. Unfortunately it falls short when the story becomes much bigger than that of Berry's distressed mother. 

 

As it becomes apparent that Frankies disappearance is part of a wider child trafficking ring, the story seems to plant the seed but never take it anywhere thus turning hte characters motivations into an unforgiving cardboard cut out. Everything about hte reason for the kidnapping is not explored any further than convenient plot filling which is all the more frustrating because what could have been left open for a bigger follow up, something I was keen to explore, is abruptly wrapped up in a news item in the films credits.

 

How one woman managed to break don a huge child kidnapping ring with relative ease becomes senseless and is only missing a leading turn from Liam Neeson to be full on preposperous. Where the film has its good moments are the tense cat and mouse chase to recover her son, once the perpretrators are uncovered the films darker plot becomes kidnapped from the script writers in favour for convenience. A real shame as this could have been a great companion piece to the much better THE CALL.

Director: Luis Prieto

Released:  6th October 2017

Running Time: 95 minutes

Age Rating: 15

 

Reviewer: Martyn Wakefield