Taking its subject matter from a real-life story, while changing enough that it uses the phrase “inspired by” the actual events, the crime drama Captive puts David Oyelowo and Kate Mara in a room together and lets the performance sparks fly. Check out the first trailer for the film.
Captive finds Oyelowo as Brian Nichols, a man in jail awaiting trial. Desperate to make contact with his newborn son, he murders the judge assigned to his case, escapes and becomes the subject of a manhunt across Atlanta led by a driven detective (Michael K. Williams). Across town, there is Ashley Smith (Mara), a young woman struggling with her own issues. A recovering meth addict, she’s trying to punch the clock on a minimum wage job and painfully missing her daughter, who was taken from her by the state.
Their lives crash into each other when Brian takes Ashley hostage in her own apartment and the two must find a way to deal with the situation. Ashley digs up a book she’s been given – Rick Warren’s advice book A Purpose Driven Life – and reads it to Nichols per his demand, an act that changes both of them. It does seem a little like one big advert for the book, but hopefully the talent involved raises it to something more than the latest attempt to nab a Christian audience.
Brian Bird adapted the script from the real Smith’s memoir An Unlikely Angel and the film will arrive in the US on September 18. There’s no sign of a UK date yet.