Hostage (2005)
There's only two reasons to see
"Hostage;" one is if you are a huge Bruce Willis Fan,
and the other is if you want to see the best child
actor since Haley Joel Osment. Willis, who starred
with Osment in the phenomenal "The Sixth Sense" is
lucky enough here to star with Jimmy Bennett, a young
actor whose work in this film and the disturbing "The
Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" is simply
amazing. Bennett isn't given enough to do here, but
the moments he is on the screen are the best ones
in "Hostage."
Sadly the script for this film is
a piece of holy cheesecloth (used to wipe a Hollywood
producer's ass) that does nothing to achieve a sense
of believability. From the first moment of the first
scene, it is obvious that this film is going to suck.
This idea is solidified the minute Jonathan Tucker,
Marshall Allman, and Ben Foster come on the screen
as teenage hoodlums. Once we get to this point, "Hostage"
becomes the worst film about violent teenage since
Sandra Bullock's dreadful "Murder by Numbers." The
youthful villains in this film are so poorly scripted,
so cardboard cut-out, so ridiculous that even a talent
like Foster is simply shut down. Stuck in a steaming
pile of shit, Foster is hopelessly lost without any
chance of getting help. His co-stars, lesser actors
than he, need a lifeline themselves so expecting them
to help elevate this crap is sheer fantasy. Foster
is stuck in the water without chance of rescue. He
waggles through this dreck looking like Trent Reznor's
bastard son left without a penny of child support.
It's depressing to watch this if you, like me, are
one of his fans.
Things are not helped much by director
Florent Emilio Siri, a foreign video game director
making his English language film debut. Siri, who
does create some artful pictures throughout the film
including a cool opening credits scene, seems helpless
to pull anything coherent or realistic out of his
cinema bag. Judging by the cool house this film takes
place in, the cool shots of the house, and the nice
special effects in the film, one gathers that Siri
had other things to think about besides plot and acting
and believability.
And Siri either hires a horrible
editor or gives him nothing to work with. Or he hired
a bad stunt coordinator who couldn't really work the
stunts - or something. Several shots end several beats
before they should leaving one to imagine that Siri
did not give the editor a full shot to work with.
While some of the special effects are cool at least
two stunt shots are poorly executed, including one
where Bennett's character is thrown to the ground.
These end way too early, jumping loose of the pacing
of the film and providing enough of a jolt to make
the viewer realize that something just isn't right.
Another disappointing aspect of
the film is the standard and overblown score provided
by Alexandre Desplat. The composer provided one of
the most interesting and beautiful scores of 2004
for "Birth." That score was unique, intricate, fully
realized and complex. Here Desplat seems only interested
in treading on the standard thriller film score cliches,
occasionally appearing to have a need to emulate Bernard
Herrmann but ultimately proving himself to be just
another overblown wannabee hack. What a disappointment.
Bruce Willis is one of the most
underrated actors working in Hollywood right now.
His work here is as consummate as many of his most
recent roles, like "The
Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable"
for M. Night Shyamalan. Willis acts here as if he
is in a film that is as good as one of those movies.
Sadly, he is not.
Notes:
Also with Kevin Pollack, Kathryn
Joosten and Willis' daughter Rumer (who supposedly
passed an audition for the part with no help from
her father - yeah, right!)
This is at least the eighth film
to have the title "The Hostage."
Foster is also in "The Heart is
Deceitful Above All Things" in which Bennett also
appears.
Viewed in Austin in March 2005.
