Wendy Ide 

A Kind of Kidnapping review – a crime against comedy

The inept criminal trope is taken to a new low in this dire caper, in which a desperate couple abduct a politician
  
  

A Kind of Kidnapping.
No escape… Patrick Baladi in A Kind of Kidnapping. Photograph: Publicity image

There may be an audience for a film that locks us in an Airbnb with two narcissistic sociopaths and one character so bland and beige that he barely exists, but for the life of me I can’t imagine who it is. A Kind of Kidnapping is dire. The tale of a desperate, debt-ridden couple – a failing actor with impulse control issues and an aspiring computer programmer – who abduct an obnoxious Tory politician for ransom, the picture is the latest addition to the inept criminal movie subgenre. It’s a genre that, at its best, produces films such as the Coen brothers’ classic Fargo. But at worst – and make no mistake, this is the absolute worst – it churns out spirit-crushing dialogue that largely consists of references to basic bodily functions and people shouting the word “dick”.

Watch a trailer for A Kind of Kidnapping.
  • In cinemas now, and on digital download from 24 July

 

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