232. The Captor; movie review

THE CAPTOR
Cert 15
90 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong language, threat, violence

As a journalist, I quite often heard the phrase Stockholm Syndrome to describe when a victim had developed empathy for their captor.
But not until now did I know of the incident which gave the condition its name.
Robert Budreau's comedy-thriller is based around the bank heist in the Swedish capital which led to hostages being taken and locked in a vault.
It stars Ethan Hawke as the perpetrator - a misguided former prison inmate whose ambitions change by the minute.
His ill-conceived robbery involves him shouting at the top of his voice and waving a gun around.
Nevertheless, he puts considerable wind up the bank's staff and customers most of whom he lets leave the premises, holding on to three while police release a friend from jail.

Mark Strong plays his pal who has genuine surprise that he has been allowed the latitude to be part of such a hare-brained scheme.
Noomi Rapace is the bank clerk who ends up showing sympathetic leanings to Hawke's unprepared raider.
Meanwhile, Christopher Heyerdahl portrays the chief of police who tries to second-guess the crazy robber and consistently gets it wrong.
Indeed, there is a Keystone Cops element to The Captor which is probably far exaggerated from the real incident but adds to the fun of the movie.
And it is all plays out to Bob Dylan songs which become part of the story.
It is fair to say that The Captor exaggerates some of the detail of the real Stockholm bank raid, making it even more absurd than it was.
However, it somehow gets away with it because of its pace and a very fine cast, in particular, Hawke who gives yet another example of his versatility.

Reasons to watch: Offbeat true crime story
Reasons to avoid: Wanders off-piste from the original tale

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know? Since the Stockholm robbery, Jan-Erik Olsson has not been convicted of any other crimes. He lived in Thailand for 15 years with his wife and son, where they ran a supermarket and later returned to Sweden.

The final word. Robert Budreau: "I love a good bank heist/hostage movie, but I was attracted to this story not because of those procedural aspects, but because of the characters, the richness of them. The strange absurdity of it all. The entire situation was almost hard to believe.”

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