Stupidest Captives Of All Time
I *really* wanted to love this film. But the entire time, I just could not get past the stupidity of the female characters. There are just SO, SO many ways they could have escaped and were either too dumb to see it or simply chose not to that I just couldn't take anything else seriously.
I mean, it's incredibly obvious that when "Kevin" is "Hedwig", he's shy, scared, and in every emotional way a nine-year-old. And yet these girls think that testing the ceiling for weakness and then ramming through it making the maximum amount of noise to attract attention to make a hole is the way out rather than, I don't know, just saying to Hedwig, "hey, I want to show you something", and then making a run for it, closing the door behind him? It literally would have been that easy.
Or later, when Hedwig is showing off his room and dances. There's a point that he's actually completely on the floor with his feet in the air for God's sake. JUST. RUN. I mean yes, I get that they didn't exactly know the full layout of the house, but good grief, at least TRY!
At another point, one of them hits him in the back with a chair and then, rather than just KEEP HITTING HIM UNTIL HE CAN'T GET UP, they just run away and hope he doesn't recover. I just...::facepalm::
Maybe it's because I've seen so many other movies with strong, intelligent, resourceful captives in better movies lately (10 Cloverfield Lane springs to mind), but these people just seemed so idiotic at every turn that I couldn't feel but so bad for everything they went through as a result.
One more point...at the beginning. "Kevin" knocks out their dad and gets in the driver's seat. Now I get that the girls in the back were goofing off, but honestly...just how long would it really take people in a car to realize that a TOTAL STRANGER just sat down?! And when the main girl looks in the mirror, sees that the groceries are on the ground, and realizes that the man sitting next to her isn't her dad, she just turns her head around SO SLOWLY to look at him that I was like "oh my God, why are you still sitting there"? Even when he chloroforms the other girls, she doesn't even take THAT opportunity (when he's busy with TWO OTHER PEOPLE FIGHTING HIM) to escape, but instead chooses the absolute worst time to try and subtly open her door. And when it sounds that it's open, she just sits there like "you didn't hear that, did you" and gets herself chloroformed as well.
I'm sorry, I just...these people were morons from beginning to end IMHO. And it ruined what should have been a great film. McAvoy, by the way, was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. But I just can't look beyond these dumb, dumb decisions made throughout by the people we're supposed to be rooting for.