Storyline
One afternoon, on a typical day at work, Adib is confronted with devastating news: His eldest daughter, Muna, has gone missing in Damascus. Now Adib, who has not been back in over 30 years, must return to Syria and deal with his secret past in order to find her. Inescapable is a thriller about a father's desperate search for his daughter and the chaos of the Middle East he left behind.
Taglines:
You can never escape your past.
Country: ,
Language: ,
Release Date: 3 Jan |
Box Office Details
Budget: CAD 4,000,000
(estimated)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
User Review
Excellent, thoughtful, fun
Rating:
I was very pleased to see this movie was willing to bring the action,
as good as Ruba Nadda's romantic-leaning films Cairo Time and Sabah
were. But where this film about a father who flies to a dangerous land
to rescue his daughter from an unknown threat is different from Taken
is that the hero is flesh and blood and approaches the problem in a
civilized way first and by the time there is fighting we can feel a
sense of consequence.
It has been said that the movie starts off fast. It starts as it should
and as I reflected afterwards it avoids stock shots of a plane taking
off and gives the impression of travel with aerial shot of a road the
hero is riding along in a car. Cinematic short-hand. At the same time,
it manages to avoid scenes that would be obvious beats in a lesser
movie, like the panic of the mother upon learning of the crisis.
Instead we see the moment before, as she watches her husband on the
phone preparing to make the trip and confront the problem. There is
just enough of the Canadian wife in this movie, considering that she
would not compete with Marisa Tomei who "blends" into her environment
and feels authentic. Even to the end I am thinking I hope Tomei's
character makes out alright.
Alexander Siddig is not playing a super human but someone who is
willing to face the worst and some real consequences to find his
daughter. Joshua Jackson as a Canadian embassy guy manages to show
several divergent aspects of his role without falling into any traps
that would be central to a lesser movie with similar layers. Had Siddig
been playing a typical action hero, he would have to cross a line into
sociopath to clear away all the bad guys at once. He gets some good
shots in and we can cheer for him, and one secret police figure is
especially smug and needs to be killed but the way this film arrives at
what has to happen is to take a left turn into character-motivated
choices that are refreshing for the genre. Where there is tension, we
are absolutely rooted in the reality of the moment by Siddig's
expression. This is real for him and for us.
I have read a comment/review here on IMDb by one "A P" that seems to be
a screaming stream of lies, one after the other. I contest his claim
that people walked out during the TIFF screening. The movie grabs your
attention and Siddig has a strong presence. There is a reason for every
scene and not a moment is wasted. Any politics I took for granted. One
villain is identified as Israeli but even he is redeemed. This is not a
political tract. As I watched the story unfold as a Caucasian Canadian
male I looked at the cultural aspect as colour that Ruba brings but the
concept of a hero's descent into a special and dangerous world is one
that we know and accept as classic myth. I had no problem identifying
with Siddig's character, often called "Mr. Toronto" by an innkeeper in
the film, and seeing it through his eyes. I am stunned by the current
low numerical rating this movie has on IMDb and I trust that the more
people see it the more the rating will improve. I noticed in a TIFF
guide or other such publication Inescapable was misidentified as a
romance. There is a restrained and heartbreaking lost love woven
through the story, but it is a thriller that is correctly paced and
set- up. It has action, though the build up is half the entertainment.
I highly recommend seeing this movie.
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