Trapped (2002)

Elevator Pitch: A rich family, Will, Karen and their asthmatic daughter Abby have a luxury home in Portland. Will goes to a conference in Seattle, piloting his own float plane. While there a criminal gang kidnap Abby, leaving the leader, Joe with the wife. At the same time Joe’s wife Cheryl holds Will at gunpoint in his hotel room, and the rules of the crime are spelt out to him. He has to pay the ransom within 24 hours, or else Abby will be killed, but unknown to the gang, Abby is asthmatic, and unless she has medical aide, she may die. As events play out all three members of the gang are emotionally compromised, but will these changes be enough to save Abby?

Content: There is no actual sex or overt nudity, although there is an attempt by the criminal leader to seduce Karen, resulting in her slashing him in the genital area with a scalpel (probably). Abby is kidnapped and is seen in a cabin in the woods with Marvin who seems to get on with her, and in Seattle Cheryl holds Will at gunpoint in his hotel room, but over time gradually seems to lose focus.

A View: The film achieved a lowly 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, at least in part because the critics thought it exploitative. If one has a look at the returns from the theatrical release it made $3 million on it s opening weekend but only $7 million after 103 days in theatres. So the word of mouth killed it, and it was indeed a bad film. This is at least in part because the gang seem to be so inept, despite their apparent experience having, according to the story, had a number of successes which no-one knows about because they are so threatening. Despite the presence of Theron and Bacon I am making this a ALMOST DON’T SEE.

Additional Info: Vancouver stood in for Seattle and, I think Portland, and the climax which involved an event on a major highway was filmed at Courteney on Vancouver Island.