Hostage

While you might think Sin City was the only graphic novel-type movie Bruce Willis made last year, you’d be wrong. Though it pretty much flew under everyone’s radar, Hostage was definitely in the same niche. Since I’ve not yet seen the Frank Miller/Robert Rodriguez noir epic I won’t compare the two but this twisted police drama was definitely enjoyable.

Willis was LAPD’s top hostage negotiator but got burned out after messing up a case where the psycho blew away the girlfriend and her little boy. He retreats to be police chief for a Ventura County town so sleepy his own teenage daughter (Willis’ own daughter Rumer) is screaming to move back to Los Angeles. And then these three teenaged hoodlums decide to get back their pride and a little more when an accountant’s 16 year old daughter flips them the bird in the pizza parlor parking lot… That’s the hostage situation, but the twist comes from the accountant (a pudgy Kevin Pollack) being a little too smart for his own self–his clients are faceless mobsters for whom he creates sophisticated offshore systems to launder money and, of course avoid taxes.

Directed by videogame vet Florent Siri and written by Doug Richardson from Robert Crais’ novel, Hostage makes very effective use of its screen time, with little put up that doesn’t come back later; the one memorable exception is an early quip from Willis to a young deputy about his wearing bright red sneakers to work. Some of the dialog could be stronger and one of the teen hoodlums (Kevin Kelly, who we recognized as Claire’s strange bisexual boyfriend on Six Feet Under) is just a bit too cartoonish in his wanton sadistic nihilism but Willis is a pro and features in almost every minute of the movie, washing out small concerns.

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