Hostage (2005) – Thriller – Miramax - Mar 11, 2005

Bruce Willis plays Jeff Talley a negotiator. After losing a women and kid in a hostage situation he retires to a small town outside LA. After a group of teenagers take a family hostage while robbing a house, Talley reluctantly returns to work to try and resolve the situation. While dealing with this crisis another emerges when Talley’s family is taken hostage by some gangsters. Talley is told that to save his family he must retrieve a DVD that the family held hostage possess. Willis tries his hardest to put Talley across and gets to show off his physical abilities that we saw in such films as Die Hard. Willis however doesn’t seem to create a believable atmosphere for the situations his character his in.

The story sounds appealing although the movie doesn’t make it clear why the gangsters need the DVD so badly. You also need to wonder why they couldn’t just wait till the situation was resolved but no they had to go make things complicated with a bit of hostage taking.

The teenagers who hold the family at hostage are played by Ben Foster, Marshall Altman and Jonathan Tucker. There performance isn’t anything to show off about. Foster who plays Mars Krupcheck tries so hard to make he’s tormented and insane character work. At times he succeeds but falls short of anything good.

The screenplay was written by Doug Richardson and was an adaptation of a novel by Robert Crais. Richardson does a poor job of developing the conflicts. The film seems to drag on with neither conflict ending any time soon. Richardson however does a decent job at establishing Talley’s character, showing how he feels about his family and his relationship with the town police force.

Hostage draws on too long and is lost in an overcomplicated plot. It is certainly not the next Bruce Willis hit.