Adult Movie Review : Captive

--- VIEWING ADVISORY ---

CAPTIVE is most certainly a motion picture that SHOULD NOT be viewed by anyone under the age of 18. It involves the torture and humiliation of a young woman by a man who's attempting to discover some very important information. As such, the story sails upon a treacherous ocean filled with raw emotions and unnerving behavior.

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At the beginning of the story, Sara Lawson is dressed to the nines, looking very much like someone who should be working in an uptown high rise office building. After traveling to the address provided by a referral service, the woman has found herself at a run down warehouse in a less than desirable part of the city. This clearly isn't the side of town where a pretty girl would normally show up wearing her combination of skirt, blouse, high heels and high fashion off black stockings.

Sara has evidently been recommended for a high profile position at a brand new company. That might explain the low rent nature of this address. The business investors might be saving money on rent and using it elsewhere. Or has the agency simply made a mistake and sent her to the wrong location?

"Hello?" she says, as she steps through the side door of the building and finds herself in a dimly lit room. "I'm here for the job interview."

A few seconds later, the room goes completely dark. This is quickly followed by sounds which make it clear that a struggle is taking place. As the view screen brightens and comes back into focus, the young woman is just beginning to regain consciousness. Attempting to stretch and move about, she finds herself chained to a set of hooks that are anchored in the dingy concrete floor.

She's very disoriented.

Her head ache is ringing like a church bell.

She's being calmly observed by a large man who lurks in the shadows and doesn't allow her to see his face. The fellow might be a gangster. Maybe he's a terrorist. Whatever her captor is, he's been keeping himself safely hidden in a section of the city most people make sure to stay away from.

From his point of view, this young woman brought trouble into his life when she walked in the side door of his building. Her arrival is completely unexpected. None of the man's associates have given him any type of signal that someone might be coming by today.

During the next several hours, he asks her the same two questions over and over again.

Who are you?

Why are you here?

Time after time, she provides the same two answers.

My Name is Sara Lawson.

I came here for the job interview.

Given the nature of his life, the man is very reluctant to believe this young woman. If she's lying, his activities have been compromised. If she's telling the truth and he lets her go, he'll need to quickly move his operation somewhere else.

If he simply kills her, that might create an entirely new set of problems. If this Sara Lawson was sent here on purpose, her people might know way more than just the location of this building. The truth of the matter is that his only option is to completely break this young woman emotionally. Whatever this Sara Lawson might know, he'll need to drag it out of her by any means necessary.

In certain ways, I find myself both happy and disappointed that this forty minute movie was produced and distributed by Gwen Media. Happy because the story has actually been completed and its out there for an adult audience to find and view. Somewhat sad because an association with this particular production and distribution company causes it to immediately be labeled as a "Fetish Video".

Please don't get me wrong, when it comes to high quality fetish entertainment, Gwen Media is always functioning near the top of the list. While many other companies are content to simply make and distribute anything they think will sell, Gwen Media's work is always in the A and B+ range. Even when they've done something I haven't liked, it isn't because the production values were bad. Merely that a particular story wasn't exactly my cup of tea.

The conundrum about this particular movie is that while CAPTIVE is most certainly a well made fetish treat, it travels beyond that genre by leaps and bounds. To put it simply, CAPTIVE is a piece of storytelling which rivals a good deal of what is being produced by the mainstream television and motion picture industry.

Writer and Director John Fitzgerald has deftly combined 21st Century Bondage Erotica with a 1950s Film Noir style. The lighting and the camera angles cause everything about the story to feel very claustrophobic. And Fitzgerald has put a great deal of effort and ingenuity into giving the modern day viewer a stunning color motion picture while handing a nod to the purists who insist that true Film Noir has only ever existed in black and white. The man has found a marvelous compromise that merges the best elements of the two distinct formats.

In the universe of CAPTIVE, the captor's warehouse is a very dark and dreary location. Everything that should belong there is a rather muted shade of pewter, tan and other very similar tones. The only things breaking the darkness are the one or two locations where a spot light is shining. This is where we always find Sara Lawson. In a sea composed of black and shadows, this woman is always at the center of the brightness.

Sara's hair, nails, lipstick and blouse are a beautifully rich candy apple red. Her skirt and high heels are a reflective black and her underclothing is much the same. In a nothing sort of place where almost everything can be easily overlooked, the nature of Sara Lawson draws all attention to her and never allows the viewer to even think of looking elsewhere.

She is the beauty. He is the barely seen beast. The conflict between the two of them is a paradox rooted in an overwhelming sense of fear. Fear that runs equally in both directions. The one who's chained to the floor ... Who's currently being tortured and tormented ... She holds just as much power over her captor as he has over her. As much as Sara fears what the man might do to her, he fears what she might know about him.

Most Hollywood production companies could spend twenty million dollars producing a ninety minute feature film and it wouldn't be half this good. I strongly recommend CAPTIVE to those adults who are looking for something a bit different and decidedly edgy.

To purchase a copy of CAPTIVE, see the production and company details that are listed below.