Kidnap (2017)

Directed by: Luis Prieto | 91 minutes | action, crime | Actors: Halle Berry, Sage Correa, Chris McGinn, Lew Temple, Jason George, Christopher Berry, Arron Shiver, Kurtis Bedford, Carmella Riley, Brice Fisher, Jennie Ventriss, Timothy Fannon, Andy Wagner, Malea Rose, Jill Alexander

She is still the only African-American woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role, but since Halle Berry was awarded the coveted gold statuette (for 2001’s ‘Monster’s Ball’), the actress has been featured more often. in the news because of her love life than because of her movies. Of course, her acclaimed role as Bond girl in ‘Die Another Day’ (2002) is in the memory of many (especially men), but on ‘Things We Lost in the Fire’ (2007), ‘Cloud Atlas’ (2012) and the After films from the ‘X-Men’ series, she has made little impression with her work. In 2015, when the discussion around #OscarsSoWhite was at its peak, she once let slip that she was disillusioned; she’d hoped there would be some sort of landslide after she won her Oscar, that she’d paved the way for other black women in the movie world. In the Supporting Actor category since her win, there have been four African American winners – Jennifer Hudson for ‘Dreamgirls’ (2006), Mo’Nique for ‘Precious’ (2009), Octavia Spencer for ‘The Help’ (2011) and Viola Davis for ‘ Fences’ (2016) – but the lead roles lag far behind. Berry has therefore decided to focus on directing in addition to acting, in order to create opportunities for her colleagues. Hopefully the films she wants to make will be of a higher level than Luis Prieto’s trashy thriller ‘Kidnap’ (2017), in which Berry plays a mother whose son is kidnapped. A film that, despite its serious lack of quality and sense of reality, is also entertaining.

A B-movie pur sang, that is ‘Kidnap’. A film reminiscent of ‘Taken’ (2008), the active hitch around Liam Neeson as a retired CIA agent who goes on the hunt for his daughter’s kidnappers, which acquired cult status and of which three parts have now been published. Perhaps ‘Kidnap’ should have become to Berry what ‘Taken’ is to Neeson, but unfortunately for Berry it turns out differently. Her character, Karla Dyson, doesn’t have it easy. She is divorced from her husband, who has since found love and wants custody of their six-year-old son Frankie (Sage Correa). Karla is a waitress and works hard to make ends meet and give her son everything his heart desires. After a grueling day, with nothing but annoying customers, she finally has an afternoon off to go to the park with Frankie. But once there, something terrible happens; while briefly distracted by a call from her lawyer, Frankie is taken away by a strange woman. She just sees the child being pulled into an old sea green Ford Mustang without number plates. Desperate, she jumps into her own red family car to give chase; you will just see that she loses her mobile phone in all haste and therefore cannot call the police on the way. What follows is a long, nerve-racking chase down the highway, with the kidnappers pulling out all the stops to brush off Karla. However, this mother is not to be messed with; the longer the chase lasts, the tighter she clings to her quest.

The storyline of ‘Kidnap’ is paper thin, the decisions Karla makes are often stupid and the events are often too ridiculous for words. It should look like Karla and the kidnappers are racing down the road like maniacs, but the other cars on the road get around without too much trouble. At a certain point, the kidnappers throw all kinds of household goods out of the car and hang poor Frankie from the doorway several times. Karla’s bourgeois red SUV takes blows after blows, but still continues to drive for a very long time… So much amateurism in the scenario initially arouses annoyance, but you’re still on the edge of your seat for an hour and a half. Where in the beginning you regularly shake your head because of Karla’s illogical, life-threatening and extremely stupid actions, that frustration gradually changes into an encouraging enthusiasm; she’s really not going to be less naive, so let’s support her then. That’s all thanks to Berry, who clings to the role and fights like a lioness to save her son. When the chase finally ends, she turns into a ruthless avenger. The kidnappers messed with the wrong mom, perhaps because she acts so irresponsibly. Moreover, calling in the police – which most of us will do should they find themselves in a similar situation – is boring. And the wall of posters of missing children in the only police station that Karla enters in this film is only a sign to her that saving her son really rests on her own shoulders.

Subtlety is hard to find. The kidnappers, played by Chris McGinn and Lew Temple, are very stereotypical nasty rednecks and Federico Jusid’s music is enormously ‘in your face’. Berry gets a little more space to profile himself, but in a film like this the acting usually remains on the surface. If we judge purely on quality, then ‘Kidnap’ scores very low. You can hardly call this film ‘good’. Nevertheless, we did enjoy ourselves with this hysterically flying thriller and at one point we even cheered for Halle Berry’s most irresponsible, but at the same time most devoted mother ever. A ride with Karla in the minivan may be a ridiculously bad ride, but it is exhilarating.