In a night pregnant with a strange mix of tension and dizzy abandon, lovers Carla and Martin prowl clubs before drunkenly wandering back to his car. While he comes across as crass nouveau riche, she appears more liberal. Their conspicuous affluence, however, makes them ideal targets for kidnappers, and the trio of Trece, Budu and Niga gets a bead on them and promptly sweeps them up at gunpoint. The kidnappers then demand $20,000 to be delivered in two hours. Carla phones her rich father Sergio to procure the money, but chaos soon ensues. A botched ATM robbery is followed by a stopover at the palatial estate of a gay drug dealer. Young couple Carla (Maestro) and Martin (Leroux) are abducted by three men and spend a terrifying night in Caracas as they wait for Carla's father (Blades) to hand over the ransom. I saw this movie last night at the Mirimax pre screening in NY. When the movie started I was realized that it was shot in DV and was thus initially put off. Fortunately the director and editor did a great job crafting an intriguing introduction that immediately characterizes the kinetic pace of the movie. <br/><br/>This is a movie about kidnapping first and foremost, but it is also a strong commentary on the ongoing struggle between the have and the have nots.<br/><br/>The story kicks off quickly when a rich young couple is kidnapped without warning outside of a drug store. The kidnapping scene is done very well. If there is any excuse for using DV it is the type of hand held quick shots the director gets while the couple is being taken. I've never been kidnapped but I feel like this is what it would be like. No overly clever threats just quick and decisive action. Shut up, don't look at me, and a pistol whip to the mouth the second i think you're looking. The three kidnappers all have distinct personalities that are at times contradictory to each other and with the whole act of kidnapping. This adds to the realism in a huge way. One of the assailants is particularly protective of the girl which becomes a theme throughout the film. <br/><br/>As the movie rolls onward the use of DV becomes less noticeable and actually begins to seem appropriate because we do tend to think of video as being "real". The cinematographer should be commended on his excellent use of color. Almost every scene is alive with brilliant hues that contrast wildly. I am not sure if this was done in some way to evoke the thematic idea that the rich and the poor live so close yet are so different, or if it is simply eye candy to savor. Either way it accomplishes that goal.<br/><br/>This is a film full of sudden plot twists and because it is a continuous story told in a 1 to 1 step with reality it seems we are literally experiencing every moment of the ordeal with the characters. Violence erupts from nowhere and you get the feeling that this is a lawless place where the kidnappers really are in control. By the end of the movie I would certainly think twice before exploring south America without a desert eagle and suitcase of cash.<br/><br/>Overall this a gritty movie that paints a realistic portrait about kidnapping in south America. there is nothing glamorous or pretty about it and thats what works so well here particularly in concert with the grainy DV look. Maybe the only aspect of the movie I had a problem with wasn't even so much individual to the movie itself. It is more the idea that the kidnappings are justified simply because the wealthy are wealthy. This movie is so well designed as documentary on a kidnapping that it doesn't leave time for us to really see the living conditions of the kidnappers. Therefore it is very difficult for me to make the logic jump that If I was in their position I would probably become a kidnapper as well. There will always be the haves and the have nots, but I would venture to say that violence, greed, and sadism are independent of financial status. They are simply the consequence of being human and we have to live with that as best as possible. Were Jack Webb handed a budget to take his sermonic L. A. cop-show "Dragnet" on the road, it might play something like "Secuestro Express." "This is the city, Caracas, Venezuela. Every sixty seconds a person is abducted in Latin America. 70% of them don't survive." The "Dumb-dee-dumb-dumb" that follows would make a suitable overture to the structural contrivances of writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz's debut feature.<br/><br/>For a man who only cut at the end of sentences and photographed everything at eye-level, the glaucomic digital imagery, jarring freeze frames and Cuisinart edits would surely sicken Webb. He would be equally reviled by the lack of law and order on display. Yet even Sgt. Joe Friday would be envious of Jakubowicz's skill with a hammer. His thudding message picture centers on a trio of goons and the engaged couple they shanghai.<br/><br/>Carla (Mia Maestro) is a sultry socialite who justifies her poverty-free existence by volunteering at a hospital for underprivileged children. Her only sin is wearing a cocktail dress in "a starving city." Okay, she also enjoys a little pot and coke, which are exactly what she and boyfriend Martin (John Paul Leroux) are partaking in at the time of their abduction. Decades after Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" smokescreen and it's still near impossible for a character to fire up a joint without instantly being earmarked for doom.<br/><br/>Their captors (Carlos Julio Molina, Pedro Perez and Carlos Madera) cavort like the Bowery Boys on crank. Violent, upidstay, and badly dressed, these homophobic brutes are hard pressed to differentiate between HIV and H20. Their cartoony machismo, one pig seems genuinely impressed that his rape victim wears Victoria's Secret, does little more than pile on shock.<br/><br/>The films is not totally void of shading. A clever twist momentarily transforming the criminals into crime victims and a well-executed front seat/back seat use of horizontal split screen both stand out. Later, a stopover at gay coke dealer's place finds the pusher asking to exchange drugs for thirty-minutes between the sheets with Martin. The reveal, before Carla, that Martin and the dealer were past lovers came as a bona fide surprise. At least until questions concerning a group of hardcore criminals loco enough to drag bruised and bloody hostages along on a drug deal popped up.<br/><br/>Even with sub-titles and grainy, rough-edged frames this action drama runs closer in spirit to this year's Bruce Willis blockbuster "Hostage" than "City of God," its obvious blueprint. Box-office benediction will determine whether or not the time is right for Jakubowicz to slap a "Hollywood, U.S.A." sticker on his steamer trunk and book passage. Jakubowicz has aptly said of his film that "the beauty of Secuestro Express is how localized it is. The more local it becomes, the more universal it becomes." The truth of his remark resonates throughout this fast and furious film.
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344 weeks ago