User Reviews

Over complicated and taking itself way too seriously Inescapable tries to craft an intelligent and complex thriller but despite a few twists and turns and a leading man that does well enough it just failed to really grab my attention. It certainly wasn't that the film dragged, in fact the hour and a half flew by and there is plenty of action and intrigue and yet for some unknown reason I just didn't care about any of it. I wish I could explain it better but there isn't any one reason why it doesn't work. It is just missing something. At times I felt like I was losing track of what was going on and what this mysterious background was of this father desperately looking for his daughter. It felt like it was trying to be a more political version of Liam Neeson's Taken. It very loosely touches on the political turmoil of Damascus but then at the same time I'm not sure they used it as much as they could have. The cinematography felt bland and empty and some of the supporting characters felt underdeveloped. I do feel like there was a lot of potential here because the script is decent and as I said there is plenty of action but it all comes across as being without any real merit and that's unfortunate.

Alexander Siddig is excellent in his role. There is absolutely nothing wrong with his performance as the protective father with an old secret that he has been running from. He is believable and shows a lot of intensity in his role. Joshua Jackson is much better of an actor than you would think from his performance in this. I feel like he sincerely misses his mark and almost seems bored in this performance. There is no chemistry between him and Siddig and he absolutely does not give this his all. Marisa Tomei is borderline pointless in this film. Her bad accent and deer in the headlights performance is annoying and barely existent. A great character actor, Oded Fehr is very good in his role but its such an unfortunately small part. I feel like he should have had a far more vital part in the whole story but sadly he does not though he has one very good scene towards the end when he is getting the truth out of Siddig.

To call the story convoluted is an understatement. There is a lot of intrigue and back story and to be honest I am not sure I even understand a single thing that happened. And yet at the same time, I never got even remotely invested enough to really try and understand it. I didn't feel like everyone was putting their entire heart into the film and I think that's where it falls apart. Ruba Nadda is apparently a very well respected writer and director but I simply felt like this was poorly shot and put together. Even the climatic reunion of father and daughter felt like it was lacking any depth. I'm not sure what drew me to try this and I'm not sorry I did because I have seen worse but this just felt so very empty. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for any sort of powerful story because it misses the mark in a big way. 5/10

Other reviews have touched on many of the flaws of this film. My review is specific to complaints regarding realism of this movie.

Having lived in Syria for over 3 years, I was a bit skeptical that this film could pull off any sense of authenticity, and my skepticism was apparently warranted. Aside from the typical pitfalls of movies set in the Middle East (actors that don't really speak comprehensible Arabic, for example), this film is deeply flawed in its portrayal of Syria both from an aesthetic standpoint and a socio-political standpoint.

1. I understand the importance of the plot in bringing to attention the fact that Syria is a police state, but this movie goes way over the top with the Syrian flags and posters and banners of Bashar al-Assad everywhere. Yeah, OK, they're not rare in Damascus... but they are not even remotely as common as this movie suggests. It is cartoonish in its portrayal. Oh, and they forgot the Ba'ath Party flags.

2. The extras in this film almost all look North African, not Syrian. Syrians tend to be much lighter in complexion. Just adds to the inauthentic feel.

3. Far too much traditional North African and Gulf dress than is seen in Damascus, where the vast majority of people dress in Western style clothes.

4. Syrian intelligence (mukhabarat) agents monitor foreigners through hotels. All hotel registries are collected daily, and anyone with a history like the main character supposedly had would have been greeted by intelligence agents promptly the next morning. He'd be monitored in his every action, if not immediately detained.

5. The guy who plays Sayid, the old friend, behaves nothing like any Syrian I've ever met. His mannerisms, gestures, way of speaking, everything... all wrong! Not a believable character at all. While I was watching the film I kept saying to myself, "this guy acts like an Israeli". Sure enough, I check IMDb, and he is Israeli...

6. The Syrian mukhabarat agents portrayed in this film act nothing like they do in real life. I have had more experience dealing with them than I should probably admit, and they act more like lazy bureaucrats than as the gangsters they're portrayed as.

7. Intelligence agents in Damascus did not need guns to intimidate people. They rarely carried them and, if they did, they were generally concealed. They don't point a gun at you and ask for your phone. They just ask for your phone, and you give it to them because you know better.

8. They aren't going ask for the Canadian ambassador's phone, though. And the Canadian ambassador isn't going to be assaulting them, either.

9. In my 3 years living in Damascus, I never saw the pipe bomb souq for the convenient purchase of PVC pipe, nails, and used mobile phones...

10. Why is this girl's body - killed as the result of an ordinary bus accident - stored in some sort of military complex? Syria does have normal morgues... they aren't guarded by military.

Also, there is no desert on the road between Amman and the Syrian border (the desert is south of Amman). And random armed men don't stop cars on that road to take bribes of alcohol, either!

At least there are like 4 clips totaling maybe 10 seconds of actual footage from Damascus. That was at least something redeeming about this movie.

If the writer/director spent any time in the Middle East in the past few decades, she should be embarrassed by her effort here. Honestly, my own experiences in Syria would make a more compelling story than this fiction...

Peter or Adib (Alexander Siddig) is a Syrian escapee living in Canada for the last 20 years. He has a wife (Bonnie Lee Bouman) two daughters, Laya and Muna (Jay Anstey), a hidden past, and a nice inlaid olive wood box where he keeps old photos. His daughter Muna is a photographer in Europe. While there she decides to slip off into Syrian where she goes missing. Dad goes to rescue her.

Yes, this is another dad looking for daughter film. Keep the expectations low because Alexander Siddig is no Liam Neeson, and Syria is not France. Adib knows how to bribe his way through the corrupt system. His past is a mystery and a problem for him. He is aided by Fatima (Marisa Tomei), a woman he was engaged to when he left Syria and never looked back. Joshua Jackson adds some minor plot twists as a Canadian embassy diplomat.

The film has some action scenes, but they are brief. No roof top jumping, no extensive car chases, no torturing people for information. There is some killing and blood splatter. The picture gives us a glimpse of the corrupt Syrian government at a time when it is vogue to hate Syria. It is not a bad film, but it is not memorable either. My recommendation: rental.

Parental Guidance: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

I'm somewhat baffled by the ratings here. This is clearly not an extreme film, yet there are so many 10s. And 1s.

It is a good enough film. It's a sort of detective action movie, involving a Canadian returning to his native Syria to rescue his daughter who is held captive because of something in his past. It kept my attention the whole time (even though I really should have been at home asleep).

Some changes I would have made if I had no constraints (a) replace the TV actors with unknowns, and (b) shoot in the mid-east. It's worth delaying the film to make it the best it can be.

In summary, it's a competent telling of the "good but flawed Western hero goes to bad non-Western country to rescue lost family member" story. If you want a Canada-Syria version of that story, then this may be that film. I'll have to leave it for others to comment on how accurately Syria is portrayed, as I have no idea.

Saw the premiere at TIFF, and I really wanted this to be good, (especially coming from a Canadian director who did well with her last film.) But this one just does not work. First, the story followed a far more superficial plot line than I expected. (You won't find any meaningful commentary on Syria here.) Worse, none of the actors was at their best. I'm not sure if it was a matter of the lines being poorly written or poorly delivered, but I found myself rolling my eyes within the first ten minutes. Marissa Tomei, who I normally like, was severely miscast for her part. The story was trite and full of plot holes, and I don't think anyone in the theater (least of all the people filing out during the show) cared what happened to the characters. (Not that much happened to them anyway.) Best wishes to those who worked on the film for better results in the future. But for this one, not a film I'd recommend seeing, even as a rental.

I thought it was a decent movie overall, but the main point of it was the daughter was believed to have pictures of the man in a compromising position with some young boys. This keeps coming up over and over. What I didn't understand is what made them think she had these pictures? Why would she think that this man partakes in that kind of activity?