The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2010) attempts a fresh take on the kidnap/hostage genre. Utilizing only three actors and minimal locations, we are never shown the police, recipients of ransom demands, any precise clues as to locale or time period nor anything outside the interaction of the perpetrators and victim. Atmosphere is heavily relied upon such as in the opening sequence where two men meticulously setup for the impending act from which the film derives its namesake. There is no dialog or context as to exactly what is transpiring, just foreboding musical accompaniment as a nondescript apartment is soundproofed and secured. Then the harrowing crime occurs.
And that is as specific on fine details as I will get as you definitely don’t want to know anymore than necessary upon initial viewing to maximize writer and first time full-length feature director J. Blakeson’s intended effect. Numerous plot turns occur to sustain palatable tension and keep us guessing including two really substantial twists. The first I definitely didn’t see coming while suspecting the second. Neither feels gimmicky as both fit genuinely within the tightly plotted narrative.
The story starts to somewhat unravel in later segments where I have to doubt one of the character’s actions. Without revealing details, a couple of developments don’t seem congruous with motivations setup earlier for one of the kidnappers. This doesn’t so much ruin the thriller as potentially throw you out of the hypnotic plot which up to this point is so effectively nerve wracking and convincing. So I won’t say the finale is necessarily wrong, but I question how we get there. Still the merits of Alice Creed outweigh the deficits and make for intriguing viewing.
High-def Presentation
Anchor Bay’s Blu-ray of Alice Creed looks great. Per the commentary, the director doesn’t strive for a “realistic” visual feel but rather purposefully makes use of color, lighting and screen composition. I don’t want to imply the video looks surreal or anything that extreme, but substantial effort was put into how to subtly evoke responses from the audience. And the high-def transfer lives up to expectations with a very “film-like” aesthetic derived from the native HD source. There is little to complain about here with remarkable fine object detail, depth, color saturation and rock solid contrast. To nitpick, I did notice some noise in darker shots, but that is likely a byproduct of the digital shooting than any defect in the BD encode. Overall this is a commendable high-def offering.
The 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack makes the most of what it has to work with. Since a good bit of the film relies on dialog and atmosphere rather than pyrotechnics, you won’t be using this as your demo disc. But when action is required, the high-def audio delivers. The tense ambiance is well served with crystal clear vocals and nice fidelity from the mood inducing score. This lossless audio does its job well of keeping us in suspense.
Beyond The Feature
The meat of the extras is a very fine feature length Commentary from writer/director J. Blakeson. What is strange is there is no mention of it on the case or in the ‘special features’ menu with the sole reference being under the ‘audio setup’ menu. And it would be a shame for fans to skip over this informative track where Blakeson shows the love of his craft and heartfelt appreciation for the actors and crew. Highlights are talk about keeping a “cinematic” feel (as opposed to a stage play due to so few actors and locations), composition of shots and lighting to maximize psychological effect, budget limitations, casting and making the actors feel comfortable while shooting without clothing and being tied and bound. Well worth checking out.
Remaining supplements are composed of “Phones” Deleted Scene (1:43) and “Alice Gets Gun” Extended Scene (7:42), both with optional commentary (I recommend listening to it), Theatrical Trailer (1:21, HD) , Outtakes (4:16) consisting of actors flubbing lines and goofing off on set, and Storyboard Comparison (5:32) where actual footage plays beneath the related storyboards.
The Disappearance of Alice Creed makes great use of a limited budget with precise plotting, tense atmosphere and convincing acting. I have issues with some plot turns near the end but still very much recommend viewing and look forward to what the director has planned as a followup to this debut. Anchor Bay’s Blu-ray release nails the faithful high-def audio and video plus includes the great director commentary (strangely not even mentioned in the extras menu or on the case).
– Robert Searle
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