Captive (1998)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Roger Cardinal

Writers:

Rodney Gibbons (writer)
Richard Stamford (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

After a botched suicide attempt Sam Hoffman finds herself trapped in an evil insane asylum |

Plot Keywords:

Insane Asylum | Imprisonment | Sanity | Murder | Independent Film

Cast

Erika Eleniak	...	Samantha Hoffman
Michael Ironside	...	Detective Briscoe
Catherine Colvey	...	Dr. Kossim
Adrienne Ironside	...	Lissy McHale
Stewart Bick	...	Joel Hoffman
Noël Burton	...	Dr. Hagar (as Noel Burton)
Laurel Paetz	...	Nurse Boland
Jack Langedijk	...	Sal Hoffman
Don Jordan	...	Police Officer
Michel Perron	...	Jarvik
Larry Day	...	Bailey
Jane Wheeler	...	Female Administrator
Danette Mackay	...	Nurse Ziller
Jeannie Walker	...	Cleaning Lady
Gillian Ferrabee	...	Women Wedding Guest

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Germany:16 | UK:15 | Canada:PG

Company:

Blackwatch

Predictable, boring, and a waste of good actors

I believe this is one of those movies the Canadian government subsidized, anyway I've seen others and they deserved to be sent directly to cable or to video. The quality of the film-making, cinematography, sound is incredibly poor. And they tend to have a claustrophobic feel to them. Also, it's as if they were using leftover film stocks from the '70s. If you're old enough to remember the home video revolution of the '80s, then you can remember how some of those old Charles Bronson movies that were transferred badly to video looked like. Well that's how this and most of the other Canadian Film Bureau movies look like.

On to the movie itself, it's a story of a woman whose husband was killed on their wedding day, she attempts suicide and she went to a sanitarium or a rehab center for a week. She then found out that through certain machination she cannot get out. The sanitarium of course is filled with a sleazy lecherous orderly, a nefarious doctor, a friendly nurse who blindly follows orders. (No, no Nurse Ratched in here). The movie pretty much went where it was supposed to go except when the killer of the husband was revealed, that was a small surprise.

The acting was not at all terrible. That has always been one of the surprising things about these CFB movies they have good actors. The performances might not be on the level of say "The Godfather", but certainly above the level of Hollywood tripe like "Ocean's Twelve". Mr. Reliable, Michael Ironside is on board so you know immediately that good acting is involved. Erika Eleniak, who I thought was a good actress did me a favor by proving me right with her performance here. Erika's performance was so convincing that I got blindsided by the last scene with her and Ironside. Too bad Hollywood won't allow her to rise above the playboy playmate stigma. The fact that no talent playmates like Jenny McCarthy, Anna Nicole, and Pam are all still eeking out a living in Hollywood does not help a talented Erika to be taken seriously.

Overall I would say the story line and the script was nothing special even boring. The film-making amateurish but the actors were surprisingly good.