Hostage thriller’s message goes deep

Drama takes tough look at child sex trade in the Philippines

Toward the end of Graceland, a central character trudges through a garbage dump in search of answers. What he finds isn’t what he hopes for, but not much of life ever is in this uncompromising Philippine drama from director Ron Morales.

Graceland is dark, horrific and an important must-see. It’s at once a white-knuckle hostage thriller and a bracing look at the scourge of child prostitution in the Philippines.

Marlon Villar (a committed Arnold Reyes) is a personal chauffeur for a sleazy congressman, a husband with a sick wife, and a father to a young girl.

When driving his boss’s daughter and his own home from school one day, a brutal kidnapping throws Marlon into an impossible situation — which, in typical indie fashion, becomes only more impossible as the film goes on. But that’s no downfall — Graceland is an unpredictable ride imbued with a sense of political awareness most hostage dramas would have a difficult time pulling off.

At moments, the acting verges on soap opera-worthy, and perhaps that’s a subconscious association when violent words are shouted in Tagalog. But with Morales’s sensitive direction, it never passes this faint nudge of melodrama. As the film climbs to its tense concluding half-hour, you won’t know where it’s going, and you’ll want to look away — don’t.

As Marlon fights for the return of his daughter, the film moves from using the sex trade as a side note to a fullon assault.

Graceland’s scenes of underage nudity are unnerving, and will be difficult for many viewers to accept — why show the nudity? Why not imply it? Why not use tighter shots? But that is the power of Graceland: When you watch Morales’s thrilling tale of the corruption of innocence, you’re not meant to find it easy.

The country’s anti-trafficking act is 10 years old, but corruption and a lack of enforcement are said to breed the Philippines’ continued miscarriage of innocence. It is estimated that somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 children are sex workers there.

You don’t need to know this to feel the power of Graceland. You can separate the real from the fiction here, if you must.

But knowing the true context of the film’s harrowing story could make its impact all the more guttural.