Trapped

Child-abduction thrillers such as this clammy kidnapping for ransom strike me as being more repulsive and numbing than thrilling or entertaining in the wake of recent tragedies and Amber Alerts. Director Luis Mandoki (Angel Eyes, When a Man Loves a Woman) uses edgy camera work to launch the film with extreme tension. The early edgy camera work and horrific stomach-knot-inducing introduction gradually deteriorate to implausible plotting and to a climax that challenges both logic and the senses. Kevin Bacon slithers into the pretentious caper (its handling of references past child abuse feels more exploitative than explanatory) as a kidnapper with a duplicitous agenda. His nearly perfected modus operandi is supported by an emotionally unstable henchman and his apparently battered wife (Courtney Love). Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend and Dakota Fanning play the victimized family.