Kidnap (2017 film)

Kidnap

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Luis Prieto
Produced by
Screenplay by Knate Gwaltney
Starring
Music by Federico Jusid
Cinematography Flavio Martinez Labiano
Edited by Avi Youabian
Production
company
Distributed by Aviron Pictures
Release date
  • July 31, 2017 (2017-07-31) (ArcLight Hollywood)
  • August 4, 2017 (2017-08-04) (United States)
Running time
 84 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $20 million[1]
Box office $15.9 million[2]

Kidnap is a 2017 American abduction thriller film[3] directed by Luis Prieto and written by Knate Gwaltney. The film stars Halle Berry, Lew Temple, Sage Correa and Chris McGinn, and follows a mother who tries to rescue her abducted son from dangerous kidnappers.

The film's development began in June 2009. Principal photography began on October 27, 2014 in New Orleans, with scenes also being filmed in Slidell. Filming was completed on December 7, 2014. Kidnap premiered on July 31, 2017 at ArcLight Hollywood, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 4, 2017 by Aviron Pictures, who purchased the rights to the film for $3 million, after original producer Relativity Media filed for bankruptcy.[4]

Plot

Karla Dyson (Halle Berry), a diner waitress, lives a mostly perfect life as a single mother with her six-year-old son Frankie (Sage Correa) despite fighting a custody battle/court order with her estranged husband.

One day, Karla takes Frankie to the local carnival. Upon entering, she temporarily leaves her son, in order to take an important phone call from the divorce lawyer she is working with. But when Karla comes back, she finds that her son is missing, leaving his toy voice recorder behind. Suddenly, Karla sees a woman dragging Frankie aggressively into a green third generation Ford Mustang and, while the car is driving away, then clings at the side of the car trying to stop them, losing her phone in the process. Karla drives her car and chases the other one, with an ensuing lengthy chase.

However, with her phone lost, she tries to get help from nearby motorists, but the attempt is thwarted by the kidnappers. Karla is then forced to take another route after the woman threatens to kill her son. Not giving up on rescuing her son, Karla chases the green car again.

Karla hears the abductor's voice from her son's toy voice recorder, revealing the abductor's name Margo, who claims that Karla is looking for her son despite, apparently, Margo sees Karla talking over the phone. She then sees a police motorcycle several meters behind her. Hoping to stop the abductors' car, Karla sways her car. The abductors' car slams the police motorcycle into Karla's car, apparently knocking the police officer unconscious.

Upon stop at grassy field, Karla confronts another abductor and demands he release her son, as long as she gives her money to the abductors. However, Margo gets out of the car and forces Karla to ride with her, who claims that they will get $10,000 ransom in exchange of her son upon reaching their destination. Margo orders Karla to follow her accomplice's car.

Upon reaching the tunnel, Margo attacks her, but Karla manages to subdue her and throws her out of the car. Having realized that Margo is gone, Karla is forced not to follow the car after the second abductor threatens to drop Frankie out onto the dangerous highway. After Karla loses them for several minutes, she spots a road accident and finds the abductors' car ahead of the traffic jam. One of the motorists saw the man and the boy emerge from the car and Karla drives after them.

Karla stops at the police station to report the incident and sees posters of young children who had been missing for a decade. Fearing that her son will disappear for good, she continues the chase. Karla eventually finds the black Volvo used by the abductor and chases him until she finally runs out of fuel. Karla hitches a ride to follow the abductor but is suddenly hit by the abductors' car, killing the driver.

Upon recovering, she finds that her son isn't there in the car. The male abductor emerges from his car and begins to shoot at her with a short saw shotgun. He tries to attack her and she releases the brake, causing the car to reverse into the woods with the abductor clinging to it being struck to death by tree branches. Karla yells at the man on where her son is, but he dies before she can get the answer. Karla finds his identification card and learns his name, Terrence Vicky, and address where her son might be.

Karla arrives at the Vicky house and eventually locates Frankie in the barn with two other kidnapped girls. Before that, she calls 911 as she hides from Margo, who leaves the house in search for her husband Terrence. Karla successfully rescues Frankie, but when Margo—who has just realized that Terrence is dead—returns, she and her son run out of the barn before she can retrieve the two girls. Karla creates a diversion by sailing the skiff away while hiding underwater.

Margo discovers them hiding, and Karla drags Margo down into the water and drowns her. Returning to the barn, she is approached by a man who is Vicky's neighbor, who holds her at gunpoint. Realizing that he is the ringleader of the kidnappings, she knocks him out with the shovel just before he draws his gun at her. As the police arrive, Karla rescues the two girls and the media reports praise her for saving the children from the abductors, and announcing the discovery of a child abduction ring that is active in four states.

Cast

Production

Principal photography on the film began on October 27, 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana.[5][6] In mid-November, filming was also taking place in Slidell.[7] Filming ended on December 7, 2014.[7]

Release

The film was previously scheduled for release on October 9, 2015,[8] but in July 2015 Relativity Media pushed back the film to February 26, 2016, because the company was facing a financial crisis.[9] It was then again re-scheduled for May 13, 2016,[10] then December 2, 2016,[11] and pulled off the schedule altogether.[12] It was then slated for release on March 10, 2017, but was delayed yet again after Relativity filed for bankruptcy, and producers had put the film back on the market, losing rights to it. Aviron Pictures, the new distributor, bought the rights for $3 million, and finally released the film on August 4, 2017, nearly three years after production began; they spent a total of $13 million on promotion.[13]

Box office

In North America, Kidnap was released alongside the opening of The Dark Tower, and the wide expansion of Detroit, and was projected to gross around $8 million from 2,378 theaters in its opening weekend.[14] The film made $3.7 million on its first day (including $500,000 from Thursday previews) and $10 million over the weekend, finishing 5th at the box office.[4]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 38%, based on 64 reviews, and an average rating of 4.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Kidnap strays into poorly scripted exploitation too often to take advantage of its pulpy premise – or the still-impressive talents of its committed star."[15] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, to film has a score of 44 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[16] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[4]

David Elrich of IndieWire gave the film a "D–" and called it the worst of the summer, saying: "The Emoji Movie might have been a boring and brazenly cynical piece of corporate propaganda, but at least it had the courtesy to be offensive. Kidnap, on the other hand, doesn’t have the the courtesy to be much of anything."[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Ehrlich, David (August 2, 2017). "Review: A Halle Berry Vehicle with Four Flat Tires, ‘Kidnap’ Is the Worst Movie of the Summer". IndieWire. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Kidnap (2017)". The Numbers. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Kidnap (2017)". AllMovie. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 "‘The Dark Tower’ Is Tall Enough For No. 1 With $19.5M During Sluggish Summer Weekend". Deadline.com. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  5. ↑ "Production Begins on Kidnap, Starring Halle Berry". comingsoon.net. October 27, 2014. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
  6. ↑ Kay, Jeremy (October 27, 2014). "Kidnap begins New Orleans shoot". screendaily.com. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
  7. 1 2 St Tamm, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes are cited in the end credits. "Halle Berry filming ‘Kidnap’ in New Orleans". onlocationvacations.com. November 20, 2014. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  8. ↑ Sneider, Jeff (September 17, 2014). "Halle Berry, Kate Beckinsale Lead Relativity's Fall 2015 Release Slate". thewrap.com. Retrieved October 28, 2014.
  9. ↑ Lang, Brent (July 20, 2015). "Relativity Moving Release of ‘Kidnap’ With Halle Berry (EXCLUSIVE)". variety.com. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  10. ↑ Pederson, Erik (December 4, 2015). "Relativity Dates Five Films For 2016 Including ‘Kidnap’ & ‘Masterminds’". Deadline.com. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
  11. ↑ Corrigan, Tom. "Relativity Media Reveals New Film Schedule". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  12. ↑ Siegel, Tatiana (November 8, 2016). "Halle Berry Thriller 'Kidnap' Moved Off Relativity Schedule". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
  13. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (May 11, 2017). "David Dinerstein Launches Aviron Pictures With Halle Berry’s ‘Kidnap’, Alec Baldwin-Salma Hayek Pic ‘Drunk Parents’ & More". Deadline. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Sony's long-awaited 'Dark Tower' may unseat 'Dunkirk' with $25-million box-office premiere". Los Angeles Times. August 2, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Kidnap (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  16. ↑ "Kidnap reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved August 10, 2017.
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