Hostage

Captive to Character

by Sabadino Parker

Bruce Willis’s career has had as many twists and turns as some of his lesser movies’ plots. He’s proved himself a top-tier action star with his Die Hard movies, a moderately successful comedian in such films as Blind Date and Hudson Hawk, and an aspiring dramatic thespian in thrillers like The Sixth Sense and Pulp Fiction. But of all his guises as a veteran box-office draw, it’s his role as Die Hard’s John McClane that remains the most memorable.

So, it comes as little surprise that his latest feature, Hostage, in many ways rehashes his stint as a quirky cop with a knack for attracting trouble. Willis plays Jeff Talley, a former L.A.P.D. hostage negotiator who had been revered for his ability to defuse tense confrontations until he botched a case and got a mother and son killed. Fast forward one year: Talley’s withdrawn to the Ventura County suburbs to assume a cushy position as a local police chief, far from any potential terrorist kidnappings...or so he thinks. His vocational retreat abruptly ends when three idiotic punks take a rich accountant, Walter Smith (Kevin Pollack), and his two children captive in the family’s luxurious, if somewhat creepy, mansion, killing a policewoman in the process. Everyone, of course, turns to Talley, who is, of course, reluctant to resume his former role as a mediator. Up until this point in the movie, everything seems believable, at least as far as home-invasion thrillers go. Then things start becoming a little too far-fetched, even for a Bruce Willis flick.

Seemingly out of nowhere, hooded gunmen kidnap Talley’s estranged wife (Serena Scott Thomas) and daughter (Rumer Willis, Bruce’s real-life daughter), demanding he take control of the hostage situation (the first one, that is). These second captors want valuable information that just happens to be possessed by Mr. Smith (i.e., hostage number one), and the three criminal schmucks who started this whole shebang are in their way (as well as in the way of this movie turning out even reasonably good).

This confusing mess is based on Robert Crais’s novel of the same name, and Hostage makes use of every cliché in the book, from slow-motion shots of Talley running to the rescue to Smith’s young son eluding his captors long enough to deliver vital info to the police outside. In other words, Hostage is Die Hard done badly.

Hostage has all the elements of a good cinematic experience: a reluctant hero, thoughtful thematic layers, and lots of explosions. Alas, the film deteriorates from a story of personal redemption to an absolutely ludicrous and empty-headed action flick through excessive overacting, sexual exploitation, and over-the-top tension-inducing cinematography, courtesy of French director Florent Siri.

Making his English-language debut, Siri employs the same forceful grittiness of his 2002 film The Nest, but fails to provoke a similar noir-style sensibility. Rather, Hostage beats you over the head with melodramatic crescendos and a blur of MTV-esque quick-cut edits. Like a rollercoaster, it goes fast and fancy but, ultimately, goes nowhere (and may result in vomiting to boot).

The film’s saving grace, surprisingly, is Willis, who has this act down pat. Hostage serves to remind us how far Willis has come as an actor in that, unlike the Die Hard trilogy, he demonstrates an awareness that a hero—or any character—has to change and grow in order for a story to have meaning. Despite all the film’s flaws, Willis manages to convey the sense that Talley has learned something about himself by the end. Still, it’s not enough to push Hostage above the realm of cheesy B-movies, which, when all the film’s fireworks are finished, is exactly where Hostage belongs.

Director: Florent Siri; Cast: Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollack, Jonathan Tucker, Ben Foster, Jimmy Bennett, Michelle Horn, Jimmy Pinchak, Marshall Allman, Serena Scott Thomas and Rumer Willis (Miramax Films, 2005) Rated: R

Release date: 11 March 2005