Abduction (2011)

★★½
Abduction (2011) gets plenty of things right. It has an interesting plot, a solid supporting cast, a talented director in John Singleton (in his last movie before his passing in 2019) and some good fight scenes. It goes wrong in a crucial area, though, and that is the lead role. Taylor Lautner, in the middle of his career peak thanks to his appearance in the Twilight movies, is physically adept, but his lack of emotional range interferes with the necessary task of conveying his character's mental stress while on the run from mob enforcers and C.I.A. agents. During a few scenes, when he's under extreme duress, he finds a believable way to react, but there's not much in between his two endpoints of "normal" and "dialed up to 11." His female co-star Lily Collins, on the other hand, gets it exactly right. Compare the two as the story progresses, and you'll see two different kinds of performances. She endures the same violent situations, but she dials up her emotional state according to the level of danger and decompresses in the same manner. When the two make out in a train car, she looks like she needs it more. For her, it's an emotional release after a close call with a mob henchman. For him, he's just kissing a girl while on a date.

Nathan Harper (Lautner) is a typical teenager growing up in Pittsburgh. He likes to party, he's popular, and he wrestles for his high school team. His father (Jason Isaacs) is strict and puts him through grueling fight sessions in an effort to toughen him up. Nathan's teacher assigns him a project and pairs him with Karen (Collins), who lives across the street and has just broke up with her boyfriend. While the two are surfing the web, they come across a missing persons website, where Nathan sees his own baby picture. He confronts his mother (Maria Bello) about this discovery and wants to know the truth. Viewing his profile on the website also triggers a notification to terrorists who have been looking for him. Before Nathan can get answers, his parents are killed in a home invasion and his house is blown up. Nathan and Karen are on the run, though they have help. The C.I.A. has been watching him for years, and a nearby contact intercepts the teens to provide cover and answer a few questions before she too is taken out of the picture. She is Dr. Geri Bennett (Sigourney Weaver), Nathan's psychologist and undercover agent who is one of the few people who knows his identity. Another is Frank Burton (Alfred Molina), a top C.I.A. agent who is coordinating the search for Nathan.

We get bits and pieces of the truth as the story unfolds. Nathan is the son of a spy who has been undercover for years doing the country's dirty work. For his latest job, he retrieved a leaked database containing the names of high-level government employees and the information that could compromise them. Nathan is in contact with Frank, but he doesn't quite trust him. The primary villain is Nikola Kozlow (Michael Nyqvist), who will stop at nothing to get that list back. He sends all his resources after Nathan, resulting in a variety of fights, chases and shootouts. Taylor Lautner is up to the task physically. His father (or the man he knew as his father since childhood) was training him to defend himself in case this day would ever come. As a result, he holds up well against trained assassins. Whatever Lautner's shortcomings as an actor (at least in this movie), he gets plenty of support around him to prevent the picture from sinking into the Ohio River. Nyqvist is especially good as the mob boss, a role that he replicated later in John Wick. There is a meeting between him and Nathan late in the movie, in an inspired setting that takes full advantage of one of Pittsburgh's most noticeable landmarks. It really made me wish Lautner could have believably occupied that space as they engaged in a potentially tense exchange of words.

When Matt Damon starred in The Bourne Identity, he was only recently that psychologically frail kid from Goodwill Hunting, though he was able to up his game with The Talented Mr. Ripley in between. Maybe a little more seasoning would have benefitted Lautner. There's no reason why Abduction couldn't have taken place in college to account for his age. I liked a lot of this movie. I liked Molina's ability to create a trusting character with something to hide. I liked Collins as the romantic interest. Bello and Isaacs as the foster parents stood out in their brief appearances. Nyqvist is a splendid villain. John Singleton's direction is fast-paced and exciting. The setting is also a plus. Pittsburgh has made plenty of appearances in major movies over the years, yet it is still an atypical location. Singleton takes full advantage of the geography when staging the action. I don't know what led to the region's selection for filming, but it was a good choice. Another good choice was keeping Nathan's real father at arm's length. He does make an appearance, but the script avoids any false sentiment that a reunion might bring. He was out of Nathan's life for a long time. He had his reasons, and those reasons don't disappear when the story ends. They indirectly reconnect for a moment, and it is here that Lautner succeeds. His Twilight background was possibly an asset in this instance.

Abduction had a good premise, and I was looking forward to seeing it when it came out. I wasn't totally disappointed by the result. Most of the ingredients were in the right amount, but the main ingredient needed extra attention. Further justifying that this movie came out too soon in his career, Taylor Lautner has acted only sporadically since 2016. Studios were not likely to feature him in a lead role after his first starring effort disappointed at the box office. Abduction is good enough for me to focus mostly on what went right. Singleton never made a bad movie. He directed 2 Fast, 2 Furious, doing his part early on to establish that franchise on solid ground to ensure its long-term success. Poetic Justice is his most grounded effort, featuring Janet Jackson in a surprisingly good performance. I'm not familiar with that movie's production, but I suspect Singleton played to her strengths when he wrote that role for her. He didn't write his final movie, and Lautner was just part of the deal. Still, Singleton ensured he didn't have to carry the load. Physically, the lean and muscular Lautner looks good in fight scenes. The supporting cast took care of the rest.

© 2022 Silver Screen Reviews