True-life crime drama counts too much on faith
Captive K (out of 4) Starring Kate Mara, David Oyelowo. Directed by Jerry Jameson. 97 minutes. Opens Friday at Cineplex Yonge and Dundas. PG
“Faith-based” and fact-based. It’s an unusual combination that’s sure to make secular cinephiles cringe.
But Captive, a film based on true events surrounding a murder spree and hostage-taking in Atlanta has much to recommend it — including some solid performances — even as it takes product placement to the extreme in promoting the book, The Purpose Driven Life, by Christian author Rick Warren.
In March 2005, accused rapist Brian Nichols overpowers a jail guard and then uses her weapon to kill a judge, a court reporter, a sheriff’s deputy and a federal agent.
He then takes hostage a woman named Ashley Smith — who has written her own memoir of the event — before eventually surrendering.
The film opens with a quote, “Where sin abounded, grace abounded more,” from Romans 5:20 in the Bible. Uplifting for some but a turnoff for others.
We soon meet Smith (Kate Mara), a meth addict who has lost custody of her daughter, attending a meeting of fellow addicts and still struggling. A friend gives her a copy of Warren’s book, which she dumps in the trash.
Across town, Nichols embarks on his crime spree with chilling efficiency, escapes and eventually finds sanctuary in Smith’s home, where Smith finds the recovered tome and reads from it as Nichols listens.
The movie divides into two plot lines: the manhunt led by Det. John Chestnut (Michael Kenneth Williams) and Sgt. Carmen Sandoval (Leonor Varela) — both of whom are terrific — and the tension-filled, night-long encounter between hostage and hostage-taker.
Mara is excellent as Smith, radiating a believable desperation that goes beyond her plight. David Oyelowo, who turned in a powerful performance as Martin Luther King Jr. in last year’s Selma, plays Nichols with no less conviction.
The script avoids the temptation toward Hollywood-style embellishment, but a couple of things rankle.
Mara’s character veers towards Stockholm syndrome in eschewing two chances to escape, while a subplot involving Smith’s too-precious daughter is emotional manipulation at its worst. As well, the numerous references to God, prayer and Nichols’ own contention that he has a “demon” inside him begin to grate.
But the biggest misstep comes in the postscript, a rewind of an old Oprah episode in which the talkshow doyenne, sitting down with the real-life Smith, welcomes author Warren onto the stage.
It only serves to cheapen an otherwise gripping and well-told tale.