When a couple of ex-cons, Louis (Hawkes) and Ordell (Bey, erstwhile rapper Mos Def), kidnap the missus, they don't realise that he's on the brink of serving her with divorce papers; if he doesn't pay the ransom and they carry out their threat to kill her, it will save him a lifetime of alimony payments.
As complications pile up, something way more imponderable than Stockholm syndrome sets in.
The 70s setting makes room for shocking clothes and wonderful music, as well as a nostalgia-inducing modesty: mega-rich Dawson's house seems run-of-the-mill by today's showy standards and the million-dollar ransom demand is almost sweet.
So are the characters, most of whom are slightly dim and out of their depth.
When Mickey seems horrified at a captor's collection of Nazi memorabilia, he asks, puzzled, "What, you don't like history?"
Add to that some snappy editing, a genial, even gentle tone and a last-scene payoff to die for, and you have a small but perfectly formed example of the genre. Fun.
- TimeOut
