Ben Affleck directs himself, Kerry Washington and Gillian Anderson in this drama where a political candidate’s son is kidnapped on the eve of an election.

Affleck takes the same essential plot of King’s Ransom / High & Low / Highest To Lowest and aims for a solid chamber piece. The lengthy middle act is essentially an one room play about responsibility, corruption, control and ethics that takes in both Los Angeles immigration hypocrisy and fidelity in marriage… as well as the bog standard anxious phone calls with anonymous criminals. Is it all very worthy? Does it play out like a more focussed update of Oscar bait Crash? The more thriller orientated set-up and wrap up are worth the admission. Affleck gets a subplot where he rekindles his character’s bedroom life with Kerry Washington’s before the guns come out. I wouldn’t put it past Ben to greenlight an entire project just so as he can share a duvet with her. I’d vote for him. Finally, Gillian Anderson is having a fantastic run right now at being hands down the standout in so many flicks.

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Perfect Double Bill: Kidnap (2017)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin