Kidnapping Mr Heineken

This review may contain spoilers!

I suppose after a long season of Oscar worthy biopics we had to reach the trashiest biopic/true story film I've seen in a long time. I would give Kidnapping Mr Heineken a 3/10.

I mean at the very least what this film got right was it's three act structure; the structure was very clear and so that made it a simple film to watch unfold in terms of plot.

Sam Worthington, who played Willem Holleeder, was one of the better performances within this film; he really captured this stubborn and unstable man perfectly. Ryan Kwanten, who played Jan 'Cat' Boellard, had some really great development; he went from jumping right into the criminal activity to freaking out in a really controlled manner. David Dencik, who played Ab Doderer, portrayed the fear of his containment perfectly; you could really see the impact of being confined through his performance.

However the performance within this film that was really a cut above the rest was Anthony Hopkins, who played Freddy Heineken. Hopkins was complete in his performance of remaining calm and collected yet paralleled this with his final break down near the end of the film. He had a strong screen presence and outshined everyone no matter which scene he was in.

This film was boring, it dragged and dragged every scene. The story itself was poorly written; the action feeling very tame as well as the crimes. In fact the motivation for the characters to descend to crime was a bit vague as was how they were able to afford the equipment to chain up Heineken. The cinematography and editing left a lot to be desired; the shots moving far to slow and the colouring very grey and dull. The music was also quite tame, a quite basic score that really did not add anything to the film.

Jim Sturgess, who played Cor Van Hout, was an awful lead; his deadpan tone and wooden acting made him a poor choice for the role. Jemima West, who played Sonja Holleeder, had no chemistry with Sturgess and as such her entire role felt quite redundant. Mark van Euwen, who played Frans 'Spikes' Meijer, really put no effort into creating an interesting character; we are told in the end that his character is institutionalised into a mental hospital yet the actor puts no work into setting this up. Thomas Cocquerel, who played Martin 'Brakes' Erkamps, had no screen presence; often enough I forgot he was in the film until he was placed in an important position within scenes.