Reclaim hit Blu-Ray on November 18 from Lionsgate.
I am a very tolerant person. But there is one thing I cannot abide and that is stupidity. Oh and people walking extremely slowly on the pavement. MOVE ALONG! We have places to be, people. Anyway, back to the stupidity. Reclaim tells of some rather stupid people, who do a stupid thing, compound it with yet more stupid things and yet the film clings to the hope we, the audience connect with them and feel sympathy for them. Nope, not happening.
THE MOVIEReclaiming is apparently the new scam trend in many countries, couples desperately wanting a child are deceived with a fake business and website promising overseas adoptions. They charge the fees, slap on some more for “unforeseen difficulties”, a little more to speed up passport processing and then vanish, leaving the couple with nothing. Reclaim tells of two such people who fall for the scam, after 2 days with their “daughter” in Haiti, she is snatched away to begin the cycle anew, but instead of cutting their losses, push on to try and get her back and find themselves deeper in trouble than before.
Basically, it is a circle of stupidity, one idiotic act begets another. I can sympathize with the yearning for a child but not the blind stumbling of two people through so many levels of stupidity this film entails; warning sign after warning sign not being enough to alert even one of the pair. The writing is sloppy and lazy tropes are wheeled out to try and engage the viewer. This includes cheap emotional flashbacks to try and endear you to the family or shoehorning in absurd action sequences towards the end to imbue excitement. The flaws in the scheme itself exasperate, inconsistent plot holes including the little girl being reused in several of these schemes who has nothing to say for herself about the plot or her situation, the tactics of the abductors as well as the idiocy of any couple who fall into such a trap. It all adds up to a frustrating experience.
Ryan Phillipe and Rachelle Lefevre strive with the clunky material but often are left in ludicrous situations with overly scripted spiels. John Cusack fares as poorly having to crank up the ham levels to try and make an impact but his bad guy of the piece is ultimately destined to go down as one of his questionable movie choices. It is a initial premise befitting a low budget lifetime movie of the week and tacked onto it is a laughable action sequence, pitiful special effects (including fire that wouldn’t look out of place on the Sega Genesis) and a smattering of “stars”.
What compounds everything is how the film ends with a coda speaking to the plight of these children used as pawns in such a scheme. A jarring end inconsistent in tone and one that frankly I found offensive. There was perhaps something more emotional and genuine to be told here, not a story that required the suspension of belief as to base human sense and the use of old tropes to try and inject some action and suspense. Reclaim is simply cheap tricks slathered onto emotionally unengaged writing about a subject that should be treated with more respect.
THE PACKAGE
Transfer quality is fine but the general look of the film is rather cheap. Cheap special effects and what looks like stock footage underline this.
Extras-wise, there is an audio commentary with Director Alan White and a Behind the Scenes doc, a number of deleted and extended scenes and a host of interviews with the cast. Its surprisingly well stuffed considering the feature is such a hollow exercise.
THE BOTTOM LINE
There is a interesting story to tell about this topic but this is not it. Tired old tropes do nothing to elevate or conceal the lazy writing and structure of the film. I want to Reclaim the 96 minutes I spent watching this frustrating endeavor.
