Film Review: Yvan Attal Keeps Attention ‘Rapt’ in Chilling Drama

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CHICAGO – The kidnapped industrialist is pretty sure that he heard the voice somewhere before. He’s just not sure where. Perhaps it was at a poker game. Perhaps it belonged to one of the faceless men that watched stealthily as he recklessly risked his fortune on the gambling table. Now the odds are clearly stacked against the industrialist, who hears the familiar voice coming from the masked face of his captor.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

That’s the enticing setup for “Rapt,” an abduction thriller that gets more interesting as it glides along, culminating in a final half hour that achieves an altogether different and more resonant darkness. Belgian filmmaker Lucas Belvaux loosely based his original screenplay on the 1978 abduction of Baron Édouard-Jean Empain, and anyone familiar with the baron’s story will more or less know the outcome of this tense yarn.

Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “Rapt” in our reviews section.

Yet Belvaux’s signature versatility enables him to skillfully meld the genres of suspense thriller and domestic drama. The plot is not a conventional whodunit and does not hinge on the identities of the ruthless thugs. Belvaux is much more interested in the complex identity of the industrialist, Stanislas Graff (Yval Attal), and the secret lives he withheld from the eyes of the public, his co-workers and his own family. The more that’s revealed about Graff’s womanizing and deceitful character, the more intriguing the picture becomes. The real question isn’t whether Graff will be saved, but whether he’s worth saving at all. Unfortunately, it takes a bit too long for the film to get to this point, and an excessive amount of the running time consists of familiar scenes involving ominous phone calls, attempted ransom payments, claustrophobic torture and a great deal of moody discussion between investigators. Attal has little to do but tremble and wince for the film’s first two-thirds, yet once his performance is finally given the opportunity to shine, “Rapt” transcends its own subject matter and becomes a more haunting character portrait than one may have expected.

Continue reading for Matt Fagerholm’s full “Rapt” review.

Yvan Attal is confronted by his kidnappers in Lucas Belvaux’s Rapt.
Photo credit: Kino Lorber, Inc.