Reviews
‘Kidnapping Inc.’ Sundance Review – Frenetic Caper Serves Up Messy Fun
A lengthy pre-title card sequence informs viewers of the political turmoil, poverty and racism that have plagued Haiti for decades, setting the stage for a kidnapping-gone-wrong plot among Haitian citizens from various economic backgrounds. This comes to us courtesy of award-winning commercial director Bruno Mourral, who makes his feature directorial debut with Kidnapping Inc.
Set in the days leading up to Haiti’s presidential election, Kidnapping Inc. follows Doc (Jasmuel Andri) and Zoe (Rolaphton Mercure), two Haitian criminals-for-hire who have just kidnapped Ben (Patrick Joseph), the son of presidential candidate Benjamin Perralt (Ashley Laraque). A wrench is thrown in their plan when they lose their kidnappee, and their desperation leads them to kidnap a lookalike (Patrick Joseph, in a dual role) and his pregnant wife (Gessica Geneus). Simultaneously, Ben’s wife Audrey (Anabel Lopez) and her lover Eddy (Marcus Boereau) attempt to secure the ransom money and get everything back to the status quo before election day arrives. While all of that is going on, Ben’s father is trying to maintain his composure and win the election, while possibly being up to some nefarious schemes of his own.
If that sounds like a lot, well, it is. Mourral keeps the film moving at a rapid pace, sometimes so rapidly that it can become difficult to follow as we bounce around from subplot to subplot. Mourral and his co-editor Arthur Tarnowski have clearly studied the films of Edgar Wright, yet what separates Wright from Mourral is that Wright makes cohesive films. I’m not convinced Mourrel has learned that trick yet, as Kidnapping Inc. threatens to derail long before the credits roll. Thankfully, it never does, but it often comes dangerously close.
Where Mourral succeeds the most is in the action sequences, especially a spectacular chase scene through the streets of Port-au-Prince that concludes the first act. Camerawork is frenetic and characters scream at each other (a lot), making for some truly thrilling set pieces. He doesn’t shy away from showing the violence, either, as bullets fly and fingernails are hammered off with gusto.
Farcical at times and deathly serious at others, Kidnapping Inc. starts out as a comedy of errors and eventually morphs into a full-blown political thriller, but the transition is far from seamless. This goes for the tonal shifts as well, which aren’t always handled with grace. Of course, nothing about Kidnapping Inc. is particularly graceful (it isn’t trying to be), but the whiplash from scene to scene, especially in the second half, is overbearing at times.
Holding things together are Andri and Mercure, who are the heart and soul of the film. They are a delight to watch and their friendship resonates, though it is Geneus who emerges as the film’s secret weapon, as she manages to steal nearly every scene she is in. The rest of the cast is made up of thinly drawn characters who don’t make much of an impression, which is why the film suffers when our two leads aren’t on screen.
However, the Doc/Zoe-less scenes are where the political commentary is at its most pointed. While the inclusion of these scenes make thematic sense, not enough attention is given to them over the course of the film’s runtime that it often feels like they belong in a different movie, especially when they’re held up against the more outlandishly comedic elements that populate most of the film. This is a shame, as there is a seething anger bubbling under the surface that boils over in the film’s final minutes. Unfortunately, it takes too long for Mourell to make his point that it doesn’t fully land by the time the credits roll.
Ultimately, Kidnapping Inc. is a loud, messy little caper that serves as a solid display of Mourell’s filmmaking talents, but he may need to take another crack at screenwriting to finesse his craft. As it stands, this is a solid debut effort that’s comes with a game cast and some hilariously entertaining set pieces, so the film earns a recommendation.
Kidnapping Inc. premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Release date TBA.
Death Down the Aisle begins with the tantalizing image of a bride, Malorie (Jess Brown), dressed in a wedding dress splattered with blood.
This is a brief (unnecessary) in media res opening before writer Audrey C. Marie jumps the action back to earlier in the day. It’s the day of the wedding, Malorie is preparing to wed Jon (David Alexander) and there’s a whirlwind introduction of wedding guests, many of whom are either family, work associates from Jon’s legal firm, or both.
Most of these relationships aren’t clear until after Jon’s death (this isn’t a spoiler; his death is heavily telegraphed by director Roxanne Boisvert). Only after the murder does it become clear that Death Down The Aisle is primarily interested in exploring red herrings, gossipy busy bodies, and characters making A LOT of phone calls.
Let’s rewind: Malorie is marrying Jon, an older man with an adult daughter, Bridget (Anna Kopacek), who looks nearly the same age as her. Jon works at Stone Legal Services with his brother Zach (Scott Gibson), as well as Malorie’s mother, Pamela (Jayne Heitmeyer) and Zach’s younger girlfriend, Amy (Gracie Callahan).
Each of these characters hand Jon a drink before the wedding begins – Zach – a Scotch, Amy – a coffee, and Pamela – an energy drink. There’s also a mysterious glass of champagne delivered to Malorie’s room that Jon drinks and Boisvert ensures that the audience keeps track of each of them by zooming in each time. This is why it’s no surprise when Jon keels over mid-ceremony, coughs up blood on Malorie’s dress, and immediately croaks.
Naturally it turns out that nearly everyone had a motive to see him dead. Pamela recently quit the firm because Jon wouldn’t confirm her salary; Zach was pushing for a merger with rival Miles (Colin Price) that Jon was unsure about, and the dead man fretted that Amy was a gold digger, so Jon wouldn’t support her promotion, either.
Adding to the too plentiful number of suspects is Malorie’s ex-husband Ryan (Frank Fiola), a recovering addict. Even Jon’s own daughter ends up on the list when it’s revealed that they were fighting in the weeks leading up to his death.
The only one who doesn’t have a motive to kill Jon is Malorie’s best friend Francesca (JaNae Armogan), who works at the wedding venue and thinks she saw something fishy. Naturally she’s killed off before the end of the first act.
What follows is a lot of conversation between characters about the firm, the merger, Malorie and Jon’s relationship, and how everyone is lying to everyone else. The problem is that 90% of these conversations happen via phone or text and few of them are interesting. Marie’s script fails to develop the characters beyond their motive, which means that the majority of the plot developments aren’t particularly engaging because the characters are so shallow.
With so many people and interweaving relationships involved, it’s hard to zero in and identify with anyone. Malorie is clearly meant to be the protagonist because, like most Lifetime films, she assumes the role of investigator, despite the presence of Detective Levine (Christian Paul) on the periphery.
But even she is kept at a distance from the audience. Because we only see a few moments of her relationship with Jon, secrets that the pair were keeping from friends and family don’t carry any emotional resonance when they come to light later in the film. One in particular seems to come out of left field and seemingly only exists to introduce another red herring in order to prolong the mystery for another 20 minutes.
Alas none of the characters get much to do, so none of the performances pop. Kopacek and Callahan look too similar and are styled identically, which sometimes makes it hard to distinguish one from the other. Further issues with casting is that the age disparity between Malorie & Jon and Zach & Amy is never mentioned (neither is Jon’s paternity of Bridget). This may be an ageist observation, but even the fact that Pamela never comments that her daughter was marrying her (Pamela’s) boss seems unusual, especially when Death Down the Aisle regularly suggests that one or more character is a gold digger.
Arguably the film’s biggest issue is that everything circles around the business dealings of the firm, none of which is engaging or interesting (hilariously it’s never even made clear what kind of law they practice!) Without more distinct characters, there’s very little to hang the narrative on.
Unfortunately after a solid opening, Death Down the Aisle gets stuck spinning its wheels, endlessly recycling its red herrings and interminable phone calls between characters. The suspect list is long, but the film’s energy lags through the saggy middle section and the climax can’t bring Death Down the Aisle back to life.
This one could have easily been called “Business Phone Calls”…and that’s not great.
Death Down the Aisle premiered on Lifetime Thursday, June 13.
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