Som da Liberdade

I was prepared to be insulted by this film as aggressively stupid QAnon propaganda, I was prepared to take it graciously as a solidly paced thriller, but I wasn't prepared for it to be such a cruel bore. Absolutely unexciting in every way, a "retiree thriller". The events around it were orders of magnitude more interesting. (23/10/2023)

A crime drama-thriller based on true events about the kidnapping of children and their subsequent sexual enslavement. Alejandro Monteverde made a film that created a big buzz and became an unexpected financial hit overseas. It has a strong message on a sensitive subject and parents may not be comfortable watching it, although there are no explicit scenes. For me it was a sort of light version of Vega's Small World which took paedophiles in its stride without any pretensions and served a very strong stew that was not nice to watch (I recommend it if you haven’t seen it), so unfortunately I can't avoid the comparison. The story focuses on a federal agent (James Caviezel) who decides on his own to rescue two siblings who have recently been kidnapped. Directionally, the film is on a decent level, likewise with the acting, the capture of the paedophiles in the opening was fine, it had a bit of a darker atmosphere at times, but most of the time the film flows slowly and nothing much interesting happens. At least the Colombian jungle finale was interesting, it gave it a bit of exoticism, and the realistic shots at the end were also nice. All in all, a decent film that highlights child abductions, which are on the rise these days, which is really crazy and scary. 6/10. (22/10/2023)