This is the true story of "courage" of drug addict Ashley Smith (Kate Mara) whose home was invaded by Brian Nichols (David Oyelowo) a rather polite cop killer who had escaped from Fulton Co. jail. Ashley reads to him a couple of lines from "A Purpose Driven Life" and he allows her to leave and then gives himself up to the cops. That is pretty much it. Ashley had ample opportunity to escape at numerous other occasions and chose not to do so, as many people speculated the two people had known each other, i.e. drug dealings previously. In this version of the story they are complete strangers. The film gets preachy during the epilogue, but wasn't too bad during the film. Unfortunately this was basically a two man play with boring characters and dialogue.The film is liked by those who enjoy faith based films.Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.

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.

"Captive" is successful in avoiding the potential of a trite Lifetime film or an evangelical tract. It takes a familiar film theme of a woman held hostage by a brutal killer and humanizes the characters with remarkable depth.The film is based on the true story of Ashley Smith, who was held captive by a Brian Nichols, who had just critically wounded a police officer and murdered a judge, court reporter, and two other bystanders in cold blood. As explained in the excellent behind-the-scenes segment in the DVD, the screenwriter, director, and actors worked hard to evoke the "miracle" of the release of Smith as a hostage and the decision of Nichols to surrender to the authorities in Atlanta.The film downplays the moments when Smith reads aloud from a self-help/religious book to Nichols. Rather, the focus is on the moments of self-revelation of both characters--Nichols as a killer and Smith as a drug addict. The bonding of the two characters in the apartment is the most memorable part of the film.Two outstanding performances are delivered by Kate Mara and David Oyelowo as Smith and Nichols. The acting is so good that one inevitably wants to see other films of these exemplary actors. In the DVD bonus segment, the most articulate of all of the film artists is Oyelowo, who describes the film as "two people finding light in the darkest places." The cast is rounded out with excellent work from Mimi Rogers as Smith's aunt and Michael K. Williams at the Atlanta police chief.Ashley Smith served as a consultant on the film. But it is clear that Mara and Oyelowo were truly dedicated to plummeting the depths of the characters, who discover redemption in two starkly different paths of their lives.

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.