"ABDUCTION" (2011) Review
"ABDUCTION" (2011) Review
It is very rare to find a Hollywood action film that features a leading man under the age of twenty (20). But I recently came across one, when I saw Taylor Lautner's 2011 film called "ABDUCTION".
Directed by John Singleton and written by Shawn Christensen, "ABDUCTION" is an action thriller about a Pennsylvania teen who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website. Nathan Harper has a recurring nightmare featuring the death of an unknown woman and consults a psychiatrist named Dr. Geraldine Bennett to discover why. One day, Nathan is partnered with his neighbor and fellow classmate Karen Murphy for a school assignment about missing children. When Karen finds a website that shows how the children would look like as adults, Nathan discovers that a young boy named Steven Price would look exactly like him at an older age. Searching in his basement, he finds the same shirt that Steven is wearing in the picture and realizes that he and Steven are the same person. Nathan calls the website's owner, unaware that he is a Russian terrorist named Viktor Kozlow.
Not long after Nathan's call, Kozlow sends two of his agents to Nathan's house. They attack Nathan's parents, Kevin and Mara, who tell him to run before being murdered and the house is destroyed. Nathan and Karen escape and attempt to call the police, but the call is intercepted by CIA operative Frank Burton, who tells Nathan that he is in danger and sends a team to pick him up. Before the CIA's arrival, Dr. Bennett appears and tells Nathan that Burton cannot be trusted and reveals that Nathan's adoptive parents were CIA agents assigned to look after him. She also reveals that Nathan's biological father, Martin, is a CIA agent who stole a list from Kozlow with the names of corrupt CIA operatives. Kozlow had created the website in order to locate Nathan and use him as leverage to force Martin to return the list.
When I first saw the preview for "ABDUCTION", I had assumed it would be another "HANNA" - namely about a genetically enhanced adolescent trained to be an assassin. Thankfully, it did not turned out that way. I suspect that many critics would have been more satisfied if "ABDUCTION" had been another "HANNA". Personally, I found "HANNA" to be a pretentious bore. And the last thing I wanted to see was another "profound" movie about some highly skilled teenager wanted by various governments and terrorists. "ABDUCTION" does feature a hunt by an intelligence agency and terrorist for an adolescent. But this hunt has nothing to do with him being genetically enhanced. Instead, he wanted as a bargaining chip for a source of valuable information.
Was "ABDUCTION" any good? Most critics seemed to think otherwise. A great deal of negative reviews practically swamped this film. And if I must be frank, "ABDUCTION" did not turn out to be another "DIE HARD" or "LETHAL WEAPON". However, I do not find this surprising. No Hollywood producer would ever heavily finance an action thriller starring an 18-to-19 year-old actor, who was only known for co-starring in a series of Young Adult vampire flicks - at least not ten years ago. But I must admit . . . "ABDUCTION" was not a disappointment. In fact, I thought it was an entertaining movie. One, the movie featured a solid story about a teenager being used by the CIA and foreign terrorists, because of his father's profession. Two, thanks to director John Singleton's direction, "ABDUCTION" was a well-paced film that featured exciting action sequences and solid dramatic moments. I also have to commend Peter Menzies Jr. for his beautiful photography of Pittsburgh and the area around southwestern Pennsylvania.
Singleton also worked well with a cast that featured solid performances from the likes of Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Nyqvist, Dermot Mulroney and Alfred Molina. Any of these performers could have easily carried this film. But it was all up to the likes of Taylor Lautner and his co-star, Lily Collins, to achieve this task. And while many critics and moviegoers may believe those two had failed, I would disagree. Actually, Lautner and Collins did a very good job - especially Lautner - in carrying the film. More importantly, both Lautner and Collins managed to create a great screen chemistry. Screenwriter Shawn Christensen could have easily ended this film on an illogical note by allowing the Nathan character to save the day and outwit the highly skilled Kozlow. Fortunately, the screenwriter used common sense and allowed Nathan to receive some much needed help in the end.
Would I view "ABDUCTION" as a potential film classic? No. I would say that it is a near-mediocre film. I say . . . near-mediocre, because I feel that it was able to somewhat raise above the line of mediocrity. As I had earlier stated, I would never consider "ABDUCTION" on the same level as the likes "DIE HARD" or "LETHAL WEAPON". But I must admit that it was a pretty solid action thriller that would be great to watch on a rainy day, thanks to director John Singleton and his two leads, Taylor Lautner and Lily Collins.