71
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawBellocchio shows us a brutal convulsion of tyranny, power and bigotry with echoes of the Dreyfus affair in France, and later, horrific events.
- 90The Film VerdictDeborah YoungThe Film VerdictDeborah YoungKidnapped (Rapito) is one of Marco Bellocchio’s most successful films, both as a taut thriller that will capture audiences with his terribly human drama, and as a masterful reflection on the themes that the Italian director has worried and revisited over a lifetime of filmmaking: the Catholic church as an anti-liberal indoctrinating machine that steals children’s souls, the frailty of personal identity, and the struggle for liberation on an individual and societal level.
- 80Screen DailyLee MarshallScreen DailyLee MarshallKidnapped hides a bleak and bracing message inside lovely old costumes and sumptuous set pieces .
- 75Slant MagazineKeith UhlichSlant MagazineKeith UhlichThe story is kept at a stress-inducing simmer, with occasional surges of operatic emotion.
- 60Time OutPhil de SemlyenTime OutPhil de SemlyenIf Kidnapped aims to dive into the subconscious of its characters, it gets stuck on the surface.
- 60VarietyJessica KiangVarietyJessica KiangSolid, stately and — like the collapsing Papal States of the Italian Peninsula in the late 1800s — just a little too tradition-bound for its own good.
- 58The PlaylistGregory EllwoodThe PlaylistGregory EllwoodWhile the filmmaker has a better grasp on conveying well-staged melodrama than many of his contemporaries half his age (Fabio Massimo Capogrosso’s score and Francesco Di Giacomo‘s cinematography assist), the heart of the story somehow still gets lost. Even a final scene that should capture the tragedy of this tale falls surprisingly flat.
- 50The Film StageLuke HicksThe Film StageLuke HicksDespite the cool, screeching, horror-like score and some memorable moments, Kidnapped plays more like a heavy sigh than an absorbing adaptation of history.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerThe Hollywood ReporterJordan MintzerFilled with the director’s typical operatic flourishes — cameras floating down corridors or over balconies as characters race toward disaster, emotional crescendos set to a racing score by Fabio Massimo Capogrosso — it can also be a rather stuffy affair, with lots of dramatic speeches and religious symbolism that runs the gamut from satirical to heavy-handed.