How does Ryan Reynolds get away with being in great movies that go under the radar? “The Captive” came out in 2014 and I don’t ever remember even hearing about it! Typically when a movie falls off the face of the earth it’s because it wasn’t good, but there was no reason for this to go over the edge (if the world was flat…luckily it’s not so it came back around). “The Captive” reminds me of a mild “Taken;” less action and more drama.

Every parent’s worst nightmare is running into a store for a few minutes and coming out to find their child isn’t there anymore. Unlike “Taken,” father, Matthew (Reynolds), and his wife, Tina, live with the agony of their daughter’s disappearance for eight long years. While police suspect Matthew had something to do with her disappearance he is vigilant in continuing to look for her. While half of the movie is spent with the police looking for Cass, their daughter, the other half is spent showing what Cass has been doing for those eight long years, the “very important work” she’s been doing for her capture. This is what I especially liked about the movie. I thought Cass’s “work” was very smart and a new play for the capture’s and captive’s roles. Aside from the possibility of this premise being on Law and Order or some similar show I’ve never seen this aspect used before and therefore really enjoyed it.

While I enjoyed 90% of the movie there were a few things I didn’t like. I longed for a little bit more in the ending. It just kind of stopped, which I could have been okay with had the boy been added to it –you should get what I’m talking about when you get there! Also, the movie jumped from the year Cass was abducted to the ending of the movie, which covered the eight years she was missing, and back and forth and everything in between. There was so much jumping that I got kind of lost from time to time as to what was happening when. Not that I missed anything from it, it just bothered me that I felt like I couldn’t keep everything compartmentalized in my head. I would have preferred a straight forward point A to point H instead of A to B to D to F to A to D to H to C and so on. Aside from those two little qualms I absolutely loved this movie and highly recommend it!