By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: J Blakeson
Starring: Eddie Marsan | Gemma Arterton | Martin Compston
Country: united_kingdom
Year: 2010
Running time: 96
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1379177/
Thom says: “This fun caper film features the kidnap of a woman who is the daughter of a very powerful man, by two fellows that appear to have a very well-thought-out plan that they execute to a certain perfection. But, uh-oh, that’s all I can say without giving away the rest of the plot. Young Compston, with his dashing good looks and talented presentation, might well have a brilliant career. He was in the aforementioned from yesterday RED ROAD. 3 1/2 cats”
Jason says: “I am somewhat surprised that the title of this film is not ‘The Kidnapping of Alice Creed’. After all, everything else about this movie is precise, thought-out, and well-defined – it would be a shame if the very title proved to be a red herring or gave the end away.
“Vic (Eddie Marsan) and Danny (Martin Compston) have a plan. We see them prepare, carefully making sure that they will go undetected and leave no forensic traces that will cause the law to pursue them after they have made their escape. The young woman they kidnap, Alice (Gemma Arterton), will have no chance of escape before the ransom is paid. It is a good plan. In fact, it appears to be a flawless plan. Except, of course, that there is no such thing: There’s always something hasn’t been taken into account.
“What is the wrench in Vic’s and Danny’s plan? You don’t really expect me to say, do you? It’s not a bad little twist, which lets the audience look at the plot in a different way, allows the security of the hideout to be compromised (but not obviously so), and sets up for another revelation that, while it doesn’t so much turn the plot on its head again, certainly does a fine job of making things more complicated. It is, in its way, a machine as perfectly well-oiled as the original kidnapping plot, designed to keep things up in the air until the last scene.
“And there is a little bit more going on, too. It would be an exaggeration to say that Disappearance is only a taut kidnapping thriller on the surface, but something else underneath – it is, above all, a movie designed to generate tension and keep the audience guessing. But that tension doesn’t come just from how the mechanics of the plan and the plot works; there’s a clear theme of how the person with power in a relationship can lie to himself or herself, truly believing that what he or she is doing is acceptable and will be forgiven or appreciated in retrospect. This sort of delusion pops up multiple times in the movie, implicitly and explicitly.
“That’s what makes the job that the cast does fairly notable – they do have to play more than just going through the motions. Martin Compston’s Danny is the central figure, and Compston plays the character as deliciously difficult to know fully, likely with more conflicting ideas in his past than any of the other characters. Eddie Marsan’s Vic is seemingly more straightforward, a career criminal who comes by his pushiness by having come up with the plan and knowing that it relies on trusting his younger colleague. Gemma Arterton gets what is often a pretty thankless role – she spends much of the movie bound and gagged on a bed, degraded and helpless – but the scenes where her character does get to try and influence her lot are well done, a nice conflict between an intelligent woman trying to work her way out of the situation and one whose rage and anger may prevent her from thinking clearly.
“Writer/director J Blakeson does well in pulling it all together; the plot feels tight, as if he worked as hard on making it foolproof as his characters have. He and his crew make the film look very nice without overdoing the gloss. And while the end may not be as sharp and meticulous as all that leads up to it, muting it somewhat, that is in part the point: Emotional reactions muddy up a precise, almost mathematical set-up.
“That precision is why THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED is initially able to draw us in; the emotion is why it’s impressive as more than just a technical exercise. 4 cats
“Seen 17 July 2010 in Salle de Seve (Fantasia 2010)”