Rapt

2009 | 125 minutes | Rated NR

This French kidnapping drama (2009) drags on for so long I'd have paid the ransom out of my own pocket just to wrap things up. A corporate titan (Yvan Attal) is snatched from his limousine and held in a dank basement by masked men who chop off his finger and send it to his family and his corporate board with a demand for 50 million euros. Unfortunately for the victim, his value begins to fluctuate on the open market once the scandal sheets begin publishing sordid details of his private life (mistresses, epic gambling losses, etc). Like The Clearing (2004), which starred Robert Redford as a kidnapped executive, Rapt considers the irony of paying top dollar for a man who's gotten rich devaluing the lives of others; its most gripping scenes involve not the kidnappers and their captive but his divided family and calculating business associates. Lucas Belvaux directed his own script; with Anne Consigny. In French with subtitles. By J.R. Jones

Director: Lucas Belvaux
Cast: Yvan Attal, Anne Consigny, André Marcon, Françoise Fabian, Alex Descas, Michel Voïta, Gerard Meylan, Christophe Kourotchkine and Maxime Lefrancois