Sundance 2015: Films We Have Seen9 of 10
Stockholm, Pennsylvania
There have been many stories of the past few years about young women returning home after being kidnapped as a child, and so it was easy to empathize with Leia (played wonderfully by Saoirse Ronan) as we see her returning home for the first time in 18 years. After the awkward meeting with her parents (Cynthia Nixon and David Warshofsky), she asks that they stop calling her by her birth name and to call her Leia, the name given to to her by her captor, Ben (Jason Isaacs). She was bothered to learn that her birthday is actually in October, not in March 15th as she's always celebrated, and prayed to the universe before each meal. It seemed that this would just be a story about Leia adjusting to her new environment and reconnecting with her parents. But halfway through the film, after she goes to the prison to visit Ben, the film takes a dark turn and the ending was so shocking that the entire audience gasped.
Cynthia Nixon gives an incredible performance as her mother who will do whatever it takes mend the bond broken with her daughter after she was kidnapped. The thing I found most interesting about the film is that director Nikole Beckwith did not choose to show Leia's captor as a creepy kidnapper. Though we mostly see him in Leia's memories, he is painted as a kind and interesting father figure and implies that he too may have been a victim in his life, so at times you can almost understand why she misses him.
There have been many stories of the past few years about young women returning home after being kidnapped as a child, and so it was easy to empathize with Leia (played wonderfully by Saoirse Ronan) as we see her returning home for the first time in 18 years. After the awkward meeting with her parents (Cynthia Nixon and David Warshofsky), she asks that they stop calling her by her birth name and to call her Leia, the name given to to her by her captor, Ben (Jason Isaacs). She was bothered to learn that her birthday is actually in October, not in March 15th as she's always celebrated, and prayed to the universe before each meal. It seemed that this would just be a story about Leia adjusting to her new environment and reconnecting with her parents. But halfway through the film, after she goes to the prison to visit Ben, the film takes a dark turn and the ending was so shocking that the entire audience gasped.
Cynthia Nixon gives an incredible performance as her mother who will do whatever it takes mend the bond broken with her daughter after she was kidnapped. The thing I found most interesting about the film is that director Nikole Beckwith did not choose to show Leia's captor as a creepy kidnapper. Though we mostly see him in Leia's memories, he is painted as a kind and interesting father figure and implies that he too may have been a victim in his life, so at times you can almost understand why she misses him.