First Hit: An interesting story with strong acting but minor components missing kept it from being great.
There are only three actors in this film. Danny (played by Martin Compston) who is the younger of the two kidnappers. Vic (played by Eddie Marsan) the other kidnapper and appears to be person who is in-charge and is the driving energy of their abduction of Alice Creed (played by Gemma Arterton).
The film begins with the two men systematically and without dialogue stripping out a room in a building somewhere in England and putting in soundproofing, locks, and covering the windows with plywood. The only thing in the bedroom is wooden bed with metal loops for attaching handcuffs and rope cinches for tying feet.
After setting up the bedroom they strip out the living room and kitchen with the bare essentials and leave. Immediately they steal a van, hijack Alice, and bring her to the bedroom where they strip her clothes off, handcuff and tie her to the bed. Working efficiently, they re-cloth Alice, gag her with a ball-in-mouth muzzle and put a hood over her head. Vic and Danny are have masks on so they cannot be seen and then finally reassure her that she will not be harmed.
As the story unfolds, the twists in their relationships begin to reveal cracks in Danny and Vic’s plan to obtain a lot of money for the return of Alice to her father. The aspects of the film that made it a bit unreal were the lack of any other outside noises, people and influences. How could they have brought this screaming girl into this building without anyone noticing? How come there aren’t any other people or outside influences on the road, in the warehouse, or in any other scene outside the apartment?
This stuff kept gnawing at me and took away from the film. It made it more like a play in which the environment was sequestered from real life.
Compston was strong as the young boy being influenced by the older man who kept him safe when he was in prison. He effectively had me believing he loved both the other man and the woman they abducted for very different reasons. Marsan was perfect as the older, in-charge, driven man who loved the younger boy. Arterton was effective and good as the abducted young lady. J Blakeson wrote and directed this and for the most part it was excellent.
Overall: Outside of the nagging thoughts about where is the rest of the world in this picture, it was well acted, directed and effective.