Solid, if unspectacular
Summary
What starts as a frenetic kidnapping movie settles into familiar territory about a half-hour in, but the two leads knock this movie out of the park.
Plot: Over-the-edge Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård) kidnaps mortgage brokerage president Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery) using a form of a dead man’s switch, due to Kiritsis’ claim that the mortgage company has screwed him out of millions.
Review: I’ve never seen Dead Man’s Line, the documentary that led to this flick being made. From what I’ve read, it’s very faithful to the documentary and the real-life incident that actually occurred. It wouldn’t surprise me if it weren’t a shot-for-shot remake of the documentary – after all, wasn’t that what Gus Van Sant did with Psycho?
Not knowing anything about the incident in question or the documentary that showed it, I was absolutely blown away by the first half hour. There is no lead-up, which is refreshing. The first minutes are of Tony Kiritsis entering the mortgage brokerage for his appointment, and about seven and a half minutes in (yes, I timed it, as I was in shock), Skarsgård already has the shotgun to Montgomery’s head. By half an hour in, Skarsgård has dragged Montgomery up the street, stolen a police car (!!!!) and forced Montgomery to drive Skarsgård to his apartment. I was floored. In a Hollywood movie culture where you need forty minutes of backstory before a character can take a breath, it was refreshing.
After that, it’s a slow-burning kidnapping story. I will say that if you are looking for big, dramatic moments, other than maybe the press conference and maybe the phone call to Hall’s dad, there is very little. Skarsgård rants and raves a lot. Montgomery looks depressed and resigned. This leads me to believe that what unfolded on screen was maybe a little closer to what actually happened in real life than your typical “based on a true story” yarn. Sure, I think the Fred Temple character is an amped-up version of the actual guy Kiritsis was actually conferring with during the kidnapping. I don’t think there was a brother. There’s Hollywood panache in there, still. But for the most part, this comes across as mildly ordinary after the initial shocking kidnapping part and therefore probably rings truer to real life.
The strange thing is, the movie does not really take sides in this one. While the initial reaction is to be sympathetic to the Kiritsis character, as he presents himself as a “champion of the people,” and you have Hall, who represents a large and wealthy company, Kiritsis is obviously a bit nuts, and Hall isn’t a douchebag. So, it’s kind of just… a kidnapping. You draw your own conclusions, which is fine and dandy, but it also feels kind of…well…meh as well. I don’t hate either Kiritsis or Hall. I don’t love Kiritsis or Hall. The sensationalistic aspects of what should feel like a bombastic movie feel a little flat.
Not that I would blame either Skarsgård or Montgomery for that. Skarsgård is at his wacko best, cursing angrily and acting betrayed and disrespected throughout. Montgomery is a great foil, quiet, thoughtful, and shockingly calm. Cary Elwes is frigging unrecognizable as the cop who knows Kiritsis and helps bring him down (I swear, I was shocked to see his name in the credits). Al Pacino…is Al Pacino. I could not tell what his accent was at times, and he’s also somewhat unrecognizable at this point in his life, but he can still carry a character – in this case, perhaps the one true unlikable one in the movie. Domingo Colman has the greatest voice on Earth and is perfect as the DJ confidant to Kiritsis.
As for the artistry, the soundtrack was by Danny Elfman, and as you would expect, it was awesome. Great 70s feel, every track and song was perfect. The cinematography was interesting – Van Sant got some creative shots in there, and the almost-news-footage feel at times really brought you in, as if you were watching a television event unfolding in front of you. The look, the music, the costumes, the sets, it all felt very middle-America, 1970s, and the suspension of disbelief was there.
There you have it. A well-acted drama that starts like a house on fire and mellows out. It runs 105 minutes, so it was not overly long or boring; it just felt like they could have done more with it to make it more memorable. Instead, it’s a solid flick that is well worth catching on streaming.