Kidnapping Freddy Heineken

Based on the true story of the kidnapping of Freddy Heineken and his personal driver. The idea is conceived by a group who are desperate. They have been hard done by during a tough economic downturn. Cor van Hout and Willem Holleeder are the groups leaders and as they are small time nobodies they want to be taken seriously. To get the money they must make it look like someone else, politically motivated has done this. Someone as horrific and brutal as the likes of Baader Meinhof or the red brigade for instance. But will they get the money and be able to keep their cool?

It is hard not to want to plunge into the facts behind this film. A story as compelling as this is hard not to want to know something more about it before you go and watch. I would suggest strongly not going to either read on wiki or on review sites like this. You should understand that the film is about reality and that this reality is warped slightly. As such I will avoid spoiling any form of drive or compulsion you have while watching the film. This is also where I will start my review....Sorry.

The film is in itself a standard affair. Like many of the thriller / action films that come out of the European fund of films, it does what it does well. That is to say that it does a very high value television film, with a very good cast of performers convincingly. The only problem is that it does these things and still thinks it should keep going. It wishes to be a serious film and this fails. The script is uninspired and the direction through the drama is too soft. This was a surprise from such a good director as Alfredson. He directed two parts of the Millennium Trilogy and did them very well indeed. His brother is also an exceptional film director but I digress. The issue with going on past a certain point is that you must have the goods in order to finish the job. This fails at its final third by literally running out of steam and becoming less compelling and more annoying. then you have the accent problems, they are all over the shop and sometimes it is as international as the production is.

Not to dishearten however. I gave it high marks for three reasons and these are the reasons in the end that the movie is worth investigating. Sir Anthony Hopkins is under used but superb as the gruff and obnoxious Heineken. He was a shark in real life and the performance plays well on this. Then you have the attention to detail of the set design that is excellent and makes the film feel as the place would have. A hard thing to do well and done very well here! Finally it is the Cinematography of Fredrik Bäckar. You sir are excellent in what you do and deserve to be crafting films of far superior means. So in the end it looks pretty and feels dead....Nice mix!