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Movie Review: “Reclaim” Packs An Emotional Wallop

[yasr_overall_rating]

A desperate American couple discovers all is not what it seems when they uncover a high-stakes underground scam while traveling abroad. To expose the truth and get back to the U.S., they must risk their lives to save their daughter.

John Cusack has always been one of my favorite actors. He made innumerable comedies throughout the 80s and 90s which are considered classics today, movies like “Sixteen Candles”, “Better Off Dead”, “One Crazy Summer” and the highly underrated “Hot Pursuit.” “Grosse Pointe Blank” is another gem and while Mr. Cusack, for most of his career to date, has played the nerdy, lovable geek, lately though, he is showing another side, a dark and precarious trait that he actually executes very successfully. Personally, there are not many comedic actors who can accomplish this simply because we expect them to be funny all the time and when they’re not, we’re disappointed. The late Robin Williams was another comedic actor who had the necessary skill required to portray either a funny character or someone very dark.

In “Reclaim”, we have a young couple, Steven and Shannon (Ryan Phillippe & Rachelle Lefevre) who are in Haiti, waiting to pick up their new adoptive daughter Nina (Briana Roy). The lady at the agency, Reigert (Jacki Weaver) informs them that they have put them up at luxurious accommodations which overlook the ocean until they get Nina’s passport sorted out. While they wait, Steven and Shannon bond with Nina and everything is going wonderfully until one morning they wake up to find her gone. The local police are brought in and inform the couple that it could be a scam and that it happens regularly there, especially to tourists. When Steven tries to call the agency, he gets a disconnection message and when he visits the office where they picked up Nina, he finds it abandoned.

The police offer to stay on top of things but Steven and Shannon decide to do some investigating of their own and along the way, they meet a fellow American, Benjamin (John Cusack) who initially appears to be very friendly but quickly they realize that he and his cohorts are in on the scheme. After taking them hostage and threatening them into take out their life savings, the couple view this opportunity as a chance to escape and reclaim their beautiful young daughter. Director Alan White creates a superb atmosphere filled with suspicion and mistrust, introducing us to new characters and not letting us know whether or not they’re involved in the racket. Luis Guzmán plays the local police chief and his intentions are never made clear until the very end.

Both Mr. Phillippe and Ms. Lefevre give very sincere and convincing portrayals of a young couple caught up in the bureaucracy and encumbrance of a foreign government who just want to retrieve their daughter and go home. Mr. Cusack smears his way through the film, grinning heinously with the competence and dexterity, not of a madman, but of someone who is very calculating and manipulative who cares only for himself while Jacki Weaver is relegated to a supporting role who sadly doesn’t have much to do. The film shines a light on the human trafficking situation that is only too real in South American countries like Haiti and Puerto Rico and should serve as a wake-up call to those who venture down there looking to adopt young children, understandably because the waiting lists in the U.S. are ridiculously elongated and cumbersome.

In select theaters now

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James McDonald

Originally from Dublin, Ireland, James is a Movie Critic with 40 years of experience in the film industry as an Award-Winning Filmmaker. He is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association.