REVIEW: KidnapBy Quinn OxleyAugust 5, 2017Karla (Halle Berry) is your average single mother trying to scrape together a living for her six-year-old son, Frankie - that is, until she loses sight of him at the park one day and must use her ingenuity, intelligence, and sheer hellbent will to retrieve him from his abductors.

Kidnap is bonkers. I mean, it’s boil-the-rabbit crazy. It starts off like your pretty standard fare, and then goes from zero to complete insanity in 2.3 seconds. Most of the movie is a very stressful experience that requires pretty major suspension of disbelief to be enjoyed.

The editing was very strange at times. There would be ten shots in a row lasting less than half a second, and then one shot lasting an eternity (thirty seconds) - very distracting, not at all effective. These random segments feel like they’re trying to be inventive, but since the rest of the movie is shot so plainly, they just feel out of place.

The story is also misleading; it feels as though it’s got one undergirding plot, but when you reach the end, you feel shorted. Perhaps relieved, but shorted.

However, I must give credit where credit is due: this film made me feel. A lot. Call it my motherly instincts; call it my justice-heavy personality imbalance. Whatever it was, I wasn’t bored. It felt like I was being pulled into a fever dream, but the forceful separation of a child from a parent is such a simple dramatic need that it’s effective almost regardless of the technique.

Is it good, though?

It’s thrilling, definitely. Frustrating and maddening and completely bonkers, but thrilling nonetheless.

Rating: 5.5/10

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