Movie Review: Halle Berry Puts New Twist on ‘Kidnap’ Tale

 

Sage Correa (left) and Halle Berry star in “Kidnap” (Photo Credit: Peter Iovino/Aviron Pictures).

 

 

Chill-Inducing 

 


Moviegoers have seen it all before, right?


A child gets kidnapped and held for ransom or gets kidnapped by an estranged parent.


The loving parent has to jump hoops to get their child back.

 

The whole time it is obvious who kidnapped the child and why.


However, if moviegoers think “Kidnap” starring Academy Award winning actress Halle Berry fits the mold of the typical suspense film, think again.


“Kidnap” has enough thrills and chills to literally give moviegoers chills.


And Berry proves just how strong a mother’s strength is when it comes to protecting her young children.


Although the subject matter of “Kidnap” is very familiar to Berry, “Kidnap” is unique in the fact that the film takes place during a few hours of one day.


In the film, there is no time to try to figure out what the kidnappers want.


There is no time for the baffled family members to gather together in distress over the lost child.


In “Kidnap,” there is an obvious child abduction, and an all-out intense car chase in which the mother knows that if she loses sight of the kidnappers, she could lose her son forever.


Basically the entire film is the desperate car chase with Karla Dyson (Berry) trying like hell to recapture her son Frankie (Sage Correa) from his abductors.


What makes matters worse in “Kidnap” is that Karla is experiencing hard financial times, but she is still dedicated to her little six-year-old boy.


Her ex is a successful real estate broker who is marrying his pediatrician girlfriend, while Karla slaves away at a mediocre New Orleans diner.


While Frankie’s father has all of the money to give his son a pampered life, there is no pampering like a loving and protective mother.


However, when Karla lets her guard down for a split second to talk to a family lawyer about Frankie’s custody and loses her son, is that enough to prove that she is an unfit mother?


Furthermore, does the abduction have something to do with the impending custody hearing?


Despite the chill-inducing adrenaline rush that is “Kidnap,” writer Knate Lee and director Luis Prieto should have developed the story a little more and added more time to the screenplay and runtime.


It would have been great to see what ultimately happened after Karla and Frankie’s ordeal and how Frankie’s father and future stepmother reacted to what eventually happened.


Furthermore, no character in “Kidnap” had a Cajun accent despite taking place in the New Orleans area.


An authentic New Orleans accent should be a requirement before Hollywood actors are allowed in the “Crescent City.”


Although filmmakers do a decent job of including New Orleans culture like jazz music and the French Quarter in films like “When the Bough Breaks,” which starred Regina Hall and Morris Chestnut, that famous New Orleans accent is somehow often missing in action.


Nevertheless, many moviegoers will not have time to focus unnecessarily on the accents in “Kidnap” because the action is fast, intense and gut wrenching for any parent.


Although the story has seen the big screen many times before, the storyline has not been presented quite like this.



REGAL RATINGS

FOUR CROWNS=EXCELLENT

THREE CROWNS=GOOD

TWO CROWNS=AVERAGE

ONE CROWN=POOR


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