Kidnap 2017 & The Call 2014 *A Halle Berry double feature*

The Call (2014)
Director
Brad Anderson (The Machinist 2004)
Writer
Richard D'ovidio (13 Ghosts 2001)
Notable Actors
Halle Berry (Cloud Atlas 2012)
Abigail Breslin (Signs 2002)

The Call is twisted in the most nonsensical way. The Call is a movie that should have been promptly hung up on, and I mean hung up on, like when we had rotary phones that caused a certain amount of pleasure once slammed down with a smug look, a defiant and final slam that abruptly ends THE CALL.  Playing 911 operator Jordan, Halle has her work cut out for her. Jordan is a veteran in her field, even with a boyfriend cop played by the very underused and forgettable Morris Chestnut, (he has maybe six lines in this entire movie but appears happy to be here.) Jordan finds herself questioning her career choice when she makes a mistake with a young woman caller who's house is being broken into. Berry coaches the young woman into hiding while police are on their way. Her plan works until their call is disconnected and Jordan promptly calls back. The ring gives the young woman away as the kidnapper finds her. The man drags the young blond from under the bed and talks into the phone she's holding. Our operator pleads with the man to not do this. 

"It's already done "
 he says and promptly hangs up, the line not nearly as bad ass as the screenwriter thinks it is. Halle is mortified and promptly scolded by her boss. The very next evening when Jordan shows up at work, the news is playing and it seems she arrived  just in time to hear about the finding of a young blond woman's remains. Of course it's the woman Jordan is responsible for. Talk about guilt trip.  
Fast forward 6 months and Jordan is still working for the office but as a trainer. Hopefully she tells the trainees about not calling back women hiding from their captors.....
After a thorough tour and  some paperwork Jordan brings her new crew to the floor. It's abuzz with operators helping people and the energy is contagious. One trainee turns to Berry and stupidly asks why she's not working on the floor. Um, maybe because her job is to train you. It's a question no one would actually ask in real life
but a ploy to bring up Jordan's guilt, we haven't forgotten what happened to her. It happened a mere few minutes ago for the audience. The small group huddle behind the desk of a female operator waiting for a call to come through. She reveals she likes her job and has been working for six months. 
 Suddenly a young woman, frantic and panicking, calls and the worker completely loses her cool, she keeps looking back over her shoulder at Jordan. Funny how a situation like this would happen as Jordan is training people. The rookie freaks because she can't track the phones location and Jordan tells her it must be a prepaid phone, and those cannot be tracked. (That's actually not even a true thing but the movie makes up a complicated scenario for the victim to have this phone so they can tell us it cannot be tracked.) Alas in the movie world it's true and it's something you think someone working for 6 months might know already. Apparently this new girl is worthless and Jordan reluctantly decides to climb into her chair and puts on the ear piece. She immediately assesses the situation. The young girl is Casey (played by Abigail Breslin). She was abducted from a mall parking garage and is currently in the trunk of her abductors car. Guess who her kidnapper is. Jordan doesn't find out it's the same guy until later in the movie when he finds the young girls phone and the same exchange that happened before occurs. When Jordan hears the phrase "It's already done" again her heart drops.
Before that ,Jordan has Casey kick out the headlight from the inside of trunk of the car and then stick her hand out the hole. It's genius and immediately garners attention, causing a mom driving by to call 911. They quickly find Casey's location. Then the mom makes the kidnapper suspicious by driving by him and staring in his face, while on her phone. He takes the nearest exit and bolts. Although that plan worked great to find the abducted girls location Jordan never asks Casey to stick her hand out the hole again. Instead she asks Casey to pour paint out of the hole. It happens to be in there and it does cause someone to pay attention. Unfortunately the guy that gets suspicious from the paint is promptly killed by the psycho and then thrown into the trunk with Casey. That's when the kidnapper sees her phone and feels compelled to speak to whoever is on the line, hence Jordan having a deja vu moment.
Abigail portrays Casey as a totally frightened victim quite well. She is quite a talented young actor and her painful cries feel truly desperate and sound frantic and real. Halle also does her best as well, giving a good performance in a sub-par movie.  
The most puzzling and weird aspect of The Call is the villain. His motivations and intentions are so dumb. The attempts to make the kidnapper appear creepy and diabolical fall short. 
As the police get closer to uncovering the kidnappers identity his twisted story unfolds and the plot quickly unravels. When the cops figure out who he is and find his home they come face to face with his wife and two young children. He is identified as Michael Foster. While in his home the cops stumble upon a shrine of his deceased sister. She was a blond haired girl. Her hair big and fluffy, it was after all the 80's. So it's now assumed he misses his sister and is using these girls to fill her place somehow. I found it very odd that the mans own wife had short brown hair and bared no semblance to his sister. His stunned wife gives the cops their other address, they have another property that is being remodeled.
With the police on their way to the other house, Jordan is told to go home since having lost contact with Casey. As if she's going to be able to have a glass of wine, unwind in a bubble bath and drift off into a blissful sleep. Instead she stays at the office replaying her and Casey's call and learns that the other property led the cops to another dead end. 
Little do they know that Michael has Casey on the property, just underground in a secret dungeon. The freak ties Casey to a chair and pulls out some professional looking and very sharp tools. He cuts her shirt off, for no apparent reason and Abigail Breslin, who was 17 at this time walks around in a mint green bra for the rest of the movie. She momentarily escapes from the chair and runs into a room. Upon entering the room Casey is frozen with fear and stops and stares into it. Michael drags her out letting her know she wants nothing to do with that room as she screams in terror. This scene actually brought real tension and chills, what was it? Unfortunately the build up is more scary than the actual reveal, since what she saw was pretty lame. 
As Casey is once again strapped to a chair, Jordan is seen poking around just above them outside. Seems she had a hunch about where her girl was. This is against protocol and why Jordan didn't just call the cops, or even just her boyfriend cop is beyond me but I guess it's time for Halle to kick some ass. Whether it be against the law or not.
First Jordan pokes around into a box with photographs. She sees pictures of the kidnapper and his sister as kids. As she sifts through she finds pictures of his sister, bald in a hospital bed, sick with cancer. Another picture shows Michael kissing his sick sister on the lips. So this is the angle the movie is really going in? Michael and his sister looked no older than ten,  but they were supposed to be in love or something? Why? This alleged incest is disturbing but only because it is so tasteless. 
Horrified, Jordan finds the trap door hidden in the ground that leads to the dungeon. Funny how she could find it in the dark, with only her flashlight and investigators couldn't in broad daylight. Jordan slips in and  runs into the mysterious room when she hears Michael coming. The big reveal of whats in his special room is quite tame. A twin bed with a pink comforter and a big red stain on it. There is also a vanity, blond wig and fridge as well. Jordan ducks into the closet. Michael decides to do his bizarre  ritual thing right now, even though Casey is still strapped to a chair. Michael takes the blond wig off the Styrofoam mannequin and puts it over his head to wear. As he lifts it Jordan looks on repulsed and horrified. My friend and I watching this film burst into laughter wondering why such a thing would cause her to react that way. It was then explained that it wasn't a wig at all, but a human scalp. Too bad that wasn't made clear, changing a scene that could have made a person squirm with disgust instead laugh with confusion. Michael suddenly snatches the hair off and sniffs it, unsatisfied he throws the hair into the mini fridge, (causing more gales of laughter.) I also want to point out that the first victim, the one that Halle got killed, had all of her hair... So I don't know if they forgot about his sick fetish or what. That would have been creepy to add, that the young woman was found mutilated, missing her hair and scalp. It also would have been clear when he put the hair on his head, that it was his previous victims hair. Missed opportunity there. 
So Michael then attempts to cut off Casey's scalp until Jordan bursts in and a scuffle happens. The girls overpower Franken-freak and the movie comes to a close with one of the most maddening endings ever. So not only has Jordan violated her training and protocol by going off on her own to find Casey, she decides to be the judge, jury and the executioner for Michael. Instead of calling the police so he can be brought to justice and never do this again to anyone, Jordan and Casey strap Michael to his own chair in the dungeon. They explain to him, in a totally -we're some bad ass chicks way- that they plan on leaving him here to rot. They came up with  plan to say that Casey escaped and Jordan found her. Really? OK that sounds cool but totally goes against the type of person Jordan is. It's just not right in a moral sense. Not to mention it's illegal. Casey and Jordan are gonna have a lot of explaining to do, to everybody. Jordan's superiors, her boyfriend, the news, media,  even Casey parents (who are never mentioned.) Not to mention that's a big lie for teenage Casey to carry on her shoulders. I hope those ladies have their story straight. So yes, logic is thrown out of the window for the sake of a bad ass ending that rips off the first Saw movie. Michael freaks out and tells Jordan and Casey, they can't do this to him. "It's already done" says Halle fucking Berry and slams his door shut. The most disturbing thing is the movie ends leaving Michael's fate up to chance. Sure, he's strapped down pretty tight, but this is his lair. In this universe it's more than likely that Michael gets away and finds another victim. Let's hope that doesn't happen because then there will be a sequel.

Kidnap (2017)

Director

Luis Prieto (Pusher 2012)

Writer

Cardboard Boxer (2012)

Notable Actors

Halle Berry

This film takes a parents biggest fears and shows us how to successfully lose your child forever by making horrible decisions. Of course Karla (Berry) gets her kid back at the end we're not there yet. Not by a long shot. The title says it all. There is a kidnap, or abduction if you will. Karla's adorable son Frankie is taken during their bonding time at a carnival. On the way there we are given pointless exposition. Karla encourages her son to try and get along with daddies "new friend", a woman I'm assuming is responsible for her newly divorced status. The divorce situation doesn't really go anywhere in the movie except to become a plot device for Berry to step away from (and turn her back to) her son to talk to her lawyer. She pleads into the phone "please Mr. Jackson, he can't get full custody." and then the call abruptly ends when her  phone dies. 

When Halle returns to where her and Frankie were sitting he is gone. At first Karla calmly looks, sure he must be close by. Then like any parent would she quickly becomes panicked  and completely loses it. Someone suggests calling 911 , I don't think anyone does and then Karla sees someone getting into their car and shoving her son in it as well. Karla gets an advantage most parents whose children go missing don't get. Usually kids just don't come home from school, disappear from the front yard, etc. Karla sees the person taking her son, shes see his car, a green mustang, and she is parked near by with a full tank of gas. 

This is a time sensitive situation. This is a dangerous situation. One wrong move could cause Halle to lose her son forever. Some of the choices she makes are just baffling and are made to keep the plot moving. The most thrilling parts of Kidnap are the near accidents on the freeway, some people are even run over later in the film. But the entire kidnapping itself just makes for good yelling at the movie screen.

The first mistake happens when she pulls out of the carnival parking lot, hot on the trail of mustang. The car gets on a freeway ramp and has to wait for a green light to get on. Halle jumps out of her car and attempts to open the door screaming, to no avail. She should have caused a major scene to stop that car, get on the hood, something. She tried to get help from the other drivers but the screen writer wanted them to ignore a screaming woman so they did. 

Next after some great chasing, lots of weaving in and out of traffic Karla manages to get right behind the kidnappers car. The perps know they're in trouble so they stick a knife out of a window, and signal for her to take the nearest exit. So her choices are (1)get off ramp and never see son again  (2)or stay on their ass and see what happens. Karla screams NO! She shakes her head no! She is not leaving her son. Then she leaves her son and takes the off ramp. One could argue that she was terrified of them hurting her son, I get that. However minutes after taking the nearest exit Berry realizes her mistake and does all types of dangerous driving on highway shoulders to get right back to them. So my point is what if they stick the knife out the window again? All she did was endanger herself further and make it harder to follow her child's abductor.

Her biggest mistake was after the Mustang ( visibly  jacked up from smashing into other vehicles at this point ) runs off the road into a deserted field. Karla has no clue what to do. Too bad she wasn't tryna' whoop ass yet like in The Call. Instead she cowers when the kidnapper exits his vehicle and walks towards her. Karla, sweet heart, you are in a minivan. If you don't run that man over and get your kid! Karla offers him her wallet. The man goes back to his car and then his wife comes out. They offer Berry a deal to get her kid back. She asks Karla to give them 10k, by driving to the bank, with the woman in the car with her while the Mustang follows. This is such a missed opportunity for Karla here. Her son is right there across the field. The kidnappers don't even have a gun! Karla agrees and lets the woman sit behind her instead of next to her as they ride to the bank. While going through a tunnel, the woman attacks her. Karla beats her ass and tosses her out of the vehicle. One half of the kidnapping team is now stranded but somehow she ends up safely back home later. Karla then begins to chase the Mustang again, giving up again when the man threatens to toss Frankie out of the car and then again going back on his tail minutes later making things harder.

A big problem is how far from the realm of reality this kidnapping is. Karla encounters ONE police officer during hours of chasing the Mustang and crashing into shit. The ONE police officer happens to be on a motorcycle. When she explains whats going on the cop is suddenly crashed into by the Mustang and presumably murdered. No one witnesses it besides Karla and the driver. 

After Karla loses gas finally and runs her heart out after the Mustang she stops and flags down another car. As she explains the situation to  the driver whose car she is in , their vehicle is hit by the kidnapper and that man is also killed. 

This is where the entire plot screeches to a halt. The kidnapper is in a new car. Karla knows that already and so do we because the kidnapper finally had to abandon the Mustang and find a new ride. During this time Karla loses track of them but then sees him drive off in a stolen black Volvo. After the Volvo crashes into Karla and the man that was helping her Halle finally goes into ass kicking mode. She beats the crap out of the kidnapper and then realizes her son is nowhere to be found. 

So where is he?

He's at the kidnappers home. How ? Most importantly if he's already at their home, which is a desolate location Karla would have never found why did the Mustang guy continue to do this cat and mouse car chase. He could have been home drinking whisky and putting his feet up. Did he drop the boy off and then decide to find another vehicle so he can possibly injure himself more and maybe even get caught by the cops? This makes no sense. And when did this even happen if the kidnapper and Frankie were on foot?

Karla goes through the now dead(?) kidnappers wallet and finds his address and walks to their house. There she has another showdown with the kidnappers wife. How did she get home? She also hides from their dog, and finds out the next door neighbor is in on it too. The cops arrive finally, Karla called them after immediately entering the house and was told it would be 15 minutes. Luckily the 911 operator didn't call back, giving her away. (hehehehe)

Karla saves the day, and two other little girls are saved. We also find out that the kidnappers were part of a huge child trafficking ring. Karla holds her son and the movie ends. So now is this gonna effect her upcoming custody battle in a good way, or in a bad way.