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Hostage
Release Date: March 11, 2005
Studio: Miramax Films
Director: Florent Siri
Screenwriter: Doug Richardson
Starring: Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollack, Ben Foster, Jonathan
Tucker, Serena Scott Thomas, Marshall Allman, Michelle Horn, Jimmy Bennett,
Rumer Willis
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
MPAA Rating: R (for strong graphic violence, language and some drug use)
Official Website:
Miramax.com/Hostage
Plot Summary: Devastated by a hostage
situation which resulted in the deaths of a young mother and her child, LAPD
negotiator Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) exits Los Angeles for a low-profile job as
chief of police in the low-crime town of Bristo Camino in Ventura County. When
three delinquent teenagers follow a family home intending to steal their car,
they inadvertently pick the wrong house on the wrong day. The trio find
themselves trapped in a multi-million dollar compound on the outskirts of town
owned by an accountant. Panicked, the teenagers take the family hostage, placing
Talley in exactly the kind of situation he never wanted to face again. Soon
after, Talley readily hands authority of the hostage situation over to the
Ventura County Sheriffs Department and leaves the scene. After it becomes clear
that the Sheriff Department cannot handle the crisis, Talley is forced to resume
the command he had abandoned where the stakes quickly evolve into a hostage
situation far more volatile and terrifying than anything he could ever imagine.
Review By: Peter Veugelaers
©2005
- Take a pot shot but be warned.
Bruce Willis plays Jeff Talley, chief of a Los Angeles police department, his
family life is in tatters, and faces a hostage drama as his next challenge.
Three aggressive youths abduct the young son and teenage daughter of a rich and
dodgy businessman Walter Smith (Kevin Pollack).
Talley is drawn into the case because associates of the businessman abduct his
own family, which gives him a personal motive for successfully handling the
situation. Smith’s associates want a DVD located in the house containing details
of off-shore bank accounts and if Talley does not obtain it they will kill his
family.
The abductor’s characterisations are clichéd: two are naïve brothers, the other
a brooding and cunning accomplice who leads them. They are remorseless and
violent, but not portrayed as fully evil, as traces of their motivations involve
tragic histories, which have the spin off effect of making them appear more
innocent when their capture is what motivates the plot.
The movie is barely plausible and starts off low key then shifts momentum,
which is sometimes gripping, until the overblown and predictably Hollywood
climax puts a dampener on an efficient build-up.
Credit must be given to Bruce Willis as he continues to broaden his range as a
dramatic actor with a sincere performance (see Tears of the Sun,
Hart’s War, The Sixth Sense) but not enough is made of his
character’s guilt complex and volatile family situation in a thriller which
plays it by-the-numbers.
Based on the novel by Robert Crais, the movie resonates when it sensitively
handles crime and its consequences and paints a morally and socially challenging
view of the world through a policeman’s eyes who is distressed by violence, a
topical subject.
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