This is my first IMDb review, even though I am an avid movie watcher and use IMDb quite frequently to make rental selections. I don't feel the low or mediocre rating assigned by many reviewers is fair. This movie is not really an action film, and it is a true story about a woman who is a drug addict and grows closer to God due to her frightful experience being held captive. Her captor does display compassion and has moments where he is likable, even though he is a murderer. Some may criticize this, but most criminals are not 100% bad people. This is a story of two people, a drug addict and a murderer, who may be leading horrible lives but they do have redeeming qualities. I believe it is a great movie, and I don't think you need to be a Christian to enjoy it.

Review: Although this movie is based on a traumatic, true story, there isn't much depth to the characters, especially Brian Nichols who seemed to be going through a personal breakdown. The movie jumps straight into the main event, so the audience won't understand why Nichols is randomly killing people whilst escaping from jail. With that aside, it's full of intensity and drama and the acting from Oyelowo and Mara is top class. If you wasn't aware of the events that happened in Atlanta on March the 11th, 2005, as I wasn't, the movie is about Brian Nichols (David Oyelowo), who escapes from the Fulton County courthouse, during his trial involving a rape case. During his escape, he murders the judge who took his case, along with a reporter and a sergeant. Whilst on the run, he kills an off-duty special agent and he takes Ashley Smith (Kate Mara) hostage in her home. Ashley is a single parent who is an recovering methamphetamine addict and she is due to see her child, who is living with her aunt, Kim Rogers (Mimi Rogers), the following morning. While he is holding her hostage, he asks for some Marijuana to calm him down but she has only got methamphetamine in her house, so he takes the drug and immediately starts to talk about running to Mexico after kidnapping his new born son. He tries to false her to take some of the "Meth" but she hasn't taken the drug for over a month and she really wants to be clean when she sees her daughter. When he has finally calms down, they get rid of the truck that he was driving and then they make there way back to her house. The following day, they have breakfast while Ashley is reading, The Purpose Driven Life to Brian who is seeking redemption for his actions. He then let's Ashley see her daughter and when she leaves the house, she contacts the police who head straight for her house. Brian knows what's coming but he doesn't attempt to leave the house because he has reached his own personal crossroad. When they finally have the house surrounded, Detective John Chestnut (Michael K. Chestnut), tries to talk Brian into surrendering but when he realises that he isn't getting anywhere, he asks Ashley for her help, who eventually gets Brian to come out of the house. Its a set of astonishing true events which shocked America at that time. I personally don't remember hearing anything about Brian Nichols in 2005, so it was good to see the real people at the end of the movie. The fact that it was her new found faith that saved Ashley's life and the redemption that Brian found through the book that she read to him, made this an emotional movie which brought these two lost souls together at the pinnacle point of there life's. I would have liked to have seen this movie in a bigger scale because it does seem slightly low budget. Apart from that, it's a watchable film which I found quite interesting throughout. Watchable!Round-Up: UK born, David Oyelowo, 39, has gained some respect in Hollywood since his role in Spooks in 2002. He's starred in some major movies, like the Last King of Scotland, the Help in 2011, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the Paperboy, Red Tails, Lincoln, Jack Reacher and the Butler. He played the lead as Martin Luther King in Selma and he also had a role in the big budget Interstellar and I was impressed with his performance in A Most Violent Year. Most of the actors came on board, in this movie because of Oyelowo's respectable name and his whole physic and violent demeanour, proves that he was willing to play a character that was out of his comfort zone, to make the movie realistic and true to the actual events. Anyway, this movie was directed by Jerry Jameson, 81, who is known for his work in the TV department. He has made episodes for Cannon, Six Million Dollar Man, McCloud, the Streets of San Francisco, Iron side, Dallas, Hawaii Five-0, Magnum P.I., etc. He did direct the movie Airport '77 but apart from that, this is his first movie for the big screen for some time. I personally enjoyed the movie and it did make me want to find out more about the true events but it really needed a big budget and some big names to bring this subject matter to the forefront. Budget: $2million Worldwide Gross: $2.8millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their crime/drama/thrillers starring Kate Mara, David Oyelowo, Michael Kenneth Williams, Mimi Rogers, Elle Graham and Claudia Church. 5/10

On reading the synopsis I wasn't sure how they were going to pull off a movie about a captive converting a convict. Based on a true story it seems they pulled it off by mostly skimming it and delivering a fairly straight criminal/hostage movie.To me it is sad that this is a true story because once it was done it went to Oprah and the facts, and I didn't see the black male convict being interviewed and celebrated. In fact the purpose driven life he gained was to in fact not see his son until he becomes 18 and chooses to do so. If it were a fiction I would have liked to see the captive fighting to make sure that man saw his son, or at least shown that the mother of his son then made contact and facilitated communication and a relationship between father and son.Without this information the story is a sad one, which would be fine, but it is framed as good for everyone despite the obvious. He even gives her her phone, a clear sign of relenting himself to the authorities, yet he doesn't give himself up. Was this confused storytelling or did he intend to give up but got scared again? We don't know because it's not even hinted at.I love the idea of this movie but what it delivers is trash mixed with troubling truths.

I decided to watch this movie on a whim simply because of the good acting talent that was in the film. I came out enjoying the movie more than I thought I would which can actually be attributed to the excellent acting of David Oyelowo and Kate Mara. This movie basically rides on the interactions between these two but they carry the film quite well. I'm always hesitant to watch movies which have such strong religious themes. I'm not anti-religious whatsoever but more often than not religious films just aren't very good. I'm happy to say that this movie has religious themes but proves that it can be done well. The movie is directed fairly well by Jerry Jameson and is actually quite suspenseful and cathartic at times. It's not perfect but it's a decent film and it's worth a watch. Let's talk about the story.Brian Nichols (David Oyelowo) is a convicted criminal who is about to go in front of the judge for a heinous crime that he committed against his former girlfriend. Nichols manages to seriously injure the guard that was watching him and then proceeds to murder the judge in charge of his case along with a stenographer and a police officer before leaving in a stolen vehicle. While this is going on. Ashley Smith (Kate Mara) is a recovering meth addict that is trying to get her life back on track so that she can regain custody of her young daughter. A woman in her support group gives her a book called The Purpose Driven Life. She doesn't give much credence to this at first but she ends up keeping the book. That night, Nichols breaks into Ashley's home and takes her hostage while he tries to figure out what he's going to do next. The night ahead of them changes both of their lives as they realize that their paths may be different but they both lead to a dead end.This movie is all about Mara and Oyelowo. Oyelowo plays his part very well and I found myself hating but eventually feeling sorry for him. It's still easier to hate him though because of the innocent people he murders throughout the story. Don't get me wrong, I know he's a troubled man but as soon as I see innocent people dying I tend to turn against the murderer. Oyelowo still does a fantastic job of giving us a very ambivalent character that performs evil acts but is not completely bad. He obviously loves his young son and the catharsis he reaches just from listening to a book being read to him is actually heartwarming. It's even more effective since we know that the story is based off of actual events.Mara almost always does a great job and this movie is no exception. Smith is a flawed character that can be easily dismissed as a deadbeat mom who would rather spend time doing drugs than getting her life back on track but there's so much more to her. When we find out just how much she has given up because of her obsessive drug use it's hard not to feel a little sorry for her. Like Nichols, she's done terrible things but she's not completely bad. Now, to be fair, her sins are no where near the level of Nichols but we can tell that she's not a perfect person either.The movie has great acting and a heartwarming story but it's certainly not perfect. Nichols is portrayed excellently by Oyelowo but even his wonderful acting ability can't make me feel too sorry for this guy. He's already serving time for one horrible crime and right off the bat we see him committing horrible crimes one after another. It's based off of a true story so it's nice that it's being kept realistic but the film should have probably let us see a bit more of what the friends and families of the slain had to go through just to keep things in perspective. However, this is really a redemption story so I understand why they didn't but it's certainly not easy to make a character likable after that kind of thing.Overall, the Captive is a very good movie with an interesting look at two flawed but ultimately misunderstood human beings. The messages get a little crossed when we remember the absolutely horrible things that Nichols does but the main idea I took away from the film is that everyone can decide to do the right thing, even the worst of us. It's certainly one of the better faith based films that we've gotten in a while.