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Friday, July 22, 2011

MOVIE REVIEW
Rapt

Lights, Camera, Kidnapping


Yvan Attal (left) as Stanislas Graff and Anne Consigny as Françoise Graff in Lucas Belvaux's 2009 film "Rapt". 
Kino Lorber Inc.

 

by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW
Fri
day, July 22, 2011

First r
eleased in 2009, Lucas Belvaux's thriller "Rapt" finally arrives in earnest in select U.S. cities today (after its earlier one-week July run at New York's Film Forum.)

Yvan Attal ("Munich", "Leaving") stars as Stanislas, a rich industrialist and director of a company, kidnapped on the streets of France.  We know little about Stanislas except that he's a married family man and has a mistress.  The kidnappers know Stanislas and his finances well: they want 50 million francs and they want it yesterday.  The board members of Stanislas's company negotiate with the kidnappers, who threaten to kill him.

Inspired by the real-life kidnapping of France's Édouard-Jean Empain a CEO held for 60 days in 1978, "Rapt" is a standard slow-burn thriller, methodical and orderly, featuring good performances from Mr. Attal, Anne Consigny (sterling here as Françoise, Stanislas's wife) and Gérard Meylan (also great as Marcel, Stanislas's attorney) as well as other cast members.  "Rapt" works best as a Hitchcockian drama of dual horrors: the trauma of first losing freedom then being alienated from it and those around you when freedom is regained. 

The camera initially reveals Stanislas in quick edits.  We don't really get to settle on him until about 30 minutes in, and of course, that's deliberate, making his positioning in the film more intriguing.

"Rapt" has flourishes of nasty and generates comedy as a tongue-in-cheek satire of tabloid journalism culture and how the media shapes one's reputation more than reality does.  Perception, as we're often told, is reality.  Truth is as much a commodity to be bought or sold in "Rapt" as Stanislas is.  Truth as truth just isn't sexy, nor does it always sell.  ("It's not the f-----g point whether you told the truth or not!", Al Pacino tells Russell Crowe in "The Insider.")  Incidentally, Mr. Empain's real-life troubles occurred a year after the affairs of Joyce McKinney and Kirk Anderson, chronicled in the recent Errol Morris "Rashomon"-style documentary "Tabloid".

Mr. Belvaux, who also wrote "Rapt", skillfully but crudely objectifies Stanislas, shaping him through the eyes of others in a physical and psychological way.  Stanislas is a trophy to his captors both literally and figuratively.  He's also dollar signs to his company's board of directors.  The film's dialogue is precise and economical.  "Rapt" has the functional villains and clichés expected in thrillers, but these archetypes aren't the heart of the director's film.

As beautiful and visceral as "Rapt" is, it uses Stanislas as a projection upon which others can release pent-up resentments.  No one seems to care about him beyond their own self-interests.  His wife is understandably indignant about him.  His kids are bitter.  His colleagues may not be too happy, either.  Since we don't know Stanislas it may be easy for us to accept what we are told about him.  Stanislas is both a weak figure and the film's strongest character for us to indict; he's strangely unsympathetic, which makes the film's point: the kidnapping isn't a meant as the audience's rallying cry for its investment -- the kidnapping is the least of the film's, the audience's (and even Stanislas's) concern. 

The plotting, planning and negotiating over Stanislas and his fate are the most interesting parts of "Rapt".  You ask yourself: who is holding Stanislas hostage?  Who holds and authorizes the ransom notes to his freedom?  Do we ever find out?  "Rapt" is a fascinating confluence of politics, family, money and identity.  I was entertained and enthralled by much, if not all, of this French drama.

Susanne Bier (Oscar winner for "In A Better World") is reportedly set to direct a Hollywood remake of "Rapt", which was nominated for four Cesar Awards in 2010.  If true -- if she, or anyone else, is remaking the film -- I hope the results are as sharp and as smart as "Rapt".  Mr. Belvaux film isn't a masterpiece but it is sly, thought-provoking and decorous theater.

With: André Marcon, Alex Descas, Michel Voïta, Françoise Fabian, Maxime Lefrançois, Sarah Messens, Julie Kaye, Christophe Kourotchkine, Marc Rioufol, Tania Torrens, Patrick Descamps, Bertrand Constant.

"Rapt" is not rated by the Motion Picture Association Of America.  It contains a scene of grisly, graphic violence, sensuality and harsh language.  The film is in the French language with English subtitles.  The film's running time is two hours and one minute.

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