Hostage

Hostage is one of those American shows which is, well, it’s American. It’s an indie production, but with something of a budget, and it’s determined to be loud, and in your face – a bit like that Jodie Foster show where she and her kid get trapped in a home safe for hours.

This time the story starts with Bruce as a SWAT team hostage negotiator. But the beard and the long hair don’t help him cajole a cuckolded man from taking out his double dealing girlfriend and their child. Oh the humanity. So an unhappy, tired Bruce shaves off his hair and heads out of LA to become a small town county sheriff.

That doesn’t stop him from having troubles with his daughter (played by real life daughter Rumer Willis, whom Bruce says won the role fair and square. The wife is also a bit uppity, and Bruce himself is also not above showing a certain wry discontent with his new small town life, faraway from his cutting edge LA job.

Say no more. The script, by Doug Richardson, based on Robert Crais’ novel, immediately wheels in three young punks, edgy and with nothing to do, who get upset when rich man’s daughter Michelle Horn gives them the finger. They decide to steal her daddy’s fancy car (Kevin Pollak is the dad), but when they break into the house – a giant fortress set in the mountains like an epic piece of CGI work – things escalate, and before you know it, an officer is down, a siege is under way, a hostage crisis gets going, and Bruce is called in to handle the action.

But wait, realism strikes. Bruce is only the county sheriff, so he hands the action over to the LA SWAT team. But hang on, Bruce is the hero, he’s got to get his hands dirty, and get down. Here’s the wrinkle – some baddies want to get their hands on vital bad guy information bad guy accountant Pollak has stored in a dvd in a case featuring Ernest Lubistch’s Heaven Can Wait (not the hopeless Warren Beatty re-make – ah yes, you can tell a European film buff has his finger somewhere in this noir pie).

So the bad guys kidnap Bruce’s wife and daughter, and urge him to get inside and secure the disc. Once that’s done, he can play happy family again.

So while the three kids inside get progressively more confused and mad, Bruce gets a call from Pollak’s young son, and he conspires to get inside, secure the dvd and maybe rescue the family. But it turns out one of the kids is a sociopath – young Ben Foster plays a kid who likes to tie up Michelle Horn and blow druggie type smoke into her mouth. Okay, okay it shows a lack of imagination with a tied up girl, but you need to keep your ratings young boy friendly if you’re mainstream.

You can surely see where all this is heading – there’s plenty of action involving the good kids (scrambling through the house’s elaborate system of ducts and hidey holes) and the bad kids, who get to feuding amongst themselves and with the cops and with their captives, and Bruce, who inevitably will take a position on the baddies who’ve taken his family.

But we should draw a discreet non spoiler curtain over the closing third of the film, so as not to ruin action pic fans’ pleasure, though it’s fair to note that the set up is more convincing than the pay off, which goes over the top in typical Hollywood style, with weak CGI and burner flame action, and lots of mayhem.

Interestingly the director is Florent Emilio Siri, who made a strike themed art house film, followed by an action film in France, before taking his trade to the States  (apparently Eric Rohmer was one of his teachers!)

Siri directs with good style, plenty of camera moves and nice framings, but his visual flourishes are eventually overwhelmed by the traditional action requirements of the genre. He must have been responsible for bringing on composer Alexandre Desplat, who has done numerous good scores for French art house shows, and here proves he can do an uncanny horn, brass, percussion and string imitation of a Hollywood action movie.

The most compelling moment? When the bad guys have Bruce handcuffed to the steering wheel of his car, and he has to show he’s afraid. Bruce’s lips quiver with emotion, his voice quavers with fear. The boy can act after all. Gee, thank God that’s over, now you get out there and kick butt Bruce and show them while real men like to cry, they also like to shove hot lead down the throats of the bad guys, even as they treasure the tender joyous moments when they can hug family and kinder.

Oh yes, it’s purest Hollywood, and fun if you don’t like to think too hard while the 5.1 sound kicks in, and sends those baddies to sociopath hell …

 

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