Captivity (R, 2007)

Reportedly re-edited to enhance gore and all but disowned by director Roland Joffé (whose previous work includes The Killing Fields), Captivity is premised on one tedious idea: torturing a beautiful girl. From her first minute on screen, model Jennifer Tree (Elisha Cuthbert) is objectified. Kidnapped by an apparently devious stalker who drugs her drink and then drags her out a back door , Jennifer wakes up in a basement. She will spend several days being emotionally and physically abused by the stalker (Pruitt Taylor Vince), who lurks in shadows, watches her on surveillance monitors, and wears an ominous dark hoodie. Jennifer's torments are various; most have to do with nasty restraints and ocular tricks (a window looking out on palm trees and water turns out to be a cruel projection). Distraught, Jennifer cries out repeatedly, "I'm sorry" (thus mimicking the tape the killer shows her of a previous victim crying out as she's doused with acid).

Even before its release, CAPTIVITY was notorious. Shot in Moscow in 2005, it was touted as the first United States-Russian co-production. And its early ads -- which featured images of a young woman's abuse -- drew public outcry and were withdrawn by distributor After Dark Films. Sadly, the movie that has finally reached theaters hardly seems worth the uproar.

The plot takes the shape of one abuse after another, punctuated by inane dialogue (killer by intercom: "Why do bad things happen to good people, you ask? That's the mystery"; Jennifer in a TV interview the killer plays on a taunting loop: "It's not just me. It's a scientific fact: Beauty rules. It always has, and it always will"). When Jennifer discovers a second captive, Gary (Daniel Gillies), she's heartened -- but viewers are troubled: His sudden appearance is ridiculously convenient, and his pretty-boy slickness is surely more corny than reassuring. The film tries to have it multiple ways, both condemning the killer's self-importance and disapproving of Jennifer's superficial performance -- as well as the system of high-fashion imagery that encourages him to desire and hate her at the same time. The fact that Captivity also flashes back to an atrocious scene showing the killer with his sexually abusive, drugged-out mother doesn't quite excuse him, but does -- predictably and quite painfully -- find a way to blame a woman for what's wrong with him.

Studio: After Dark Films
Director: Roland Joffe
Cast: Daniel Gillies, Elisha Cuthbert, Pruitt Taylor Vince
Genre: Horror
Run time: 85 minutes
Theatrical release: July 13, 2007
DVD release: October 30, 2007
MPAA Rating: R
MPAA explanation: strong violence, torture, pervasive terror, grisly images, language and some sexual material.