Film Review: Slave (2009)

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SYNOPSIS:

A dangerous and masochistic psychopath known as the White Arab. While Georgie fights for her life and her sanity, David must wade through a quagmire of corrupt officials, drug dealers and crazed locals in an attempt to discover her location and rescue her before it is too late.

REVIEW:

Director – Darryn Welch
Starring – Sam Page, Natassia Malthe, Michael Maxwell

It seems like anymore in the movies when we Americans go on vacation overseas, it’s like ringing the dinner bell for all psychos and crazies and mad men to come and either kidnap or kill us, or both. Following in the footsteps of “Taken,” Slave tells the sordid story of a young American woman being kidnapped and forced to become a sex slave on a boat. And while the ending does provide some good twists, there are many times during the movie you wish that Liam Neeson would show up to do some major butt kicking.

The movie starts off with a brief history of the Dunsmore family. Not exactly picture perfect as we learn that the father Robert Dunsmore (played by Michael Maxwell), gangsta extraordinaire, likes to party with the ladies. His wife finally has enough and takes her son David to live with her in America. David (played by Sam Page) grows up to be the opposite of his father. He graduates from college, gets a good office job and meets and proposes to a beautiful woman, Georgie (played by Natassia Malthe of Lake Placid and DOA: Dead or Alive fame). Life is good until Georgie suggests that they go visit his father in Spain. She wants to meet him so she’ll know what David will look like when he’s old and fat.

David isn’t so sure this is the best idea. He hasn’t spoken to his dad in five years. When he calls him to let him know they are coming, his dad puts him on hold because he is messing around with some young women. Do things ever change for the Dunsmore family? The dad claims to have loved David’s mom very much, but as he puts it, sometimes life just gets in the way.

When David and Georgie arrive at Dad’s house, he’s not there but leaves them a note saying that he can’t wait to meet Georgie when he sees them tomorrow. Later that night they decide to go out to a club. They are stopped at the door but when David mentions his father’s name, they are let right in. Ah, it’s good to be the son of a gangster. Once inside, they are giving some drugs and told to have a good time. Hey, why not, what could go wrong? After awhile, David slips into the restroom for just a couple of minutes while Georgie remains on the dance floor. When he comes out, she is nowhere to be found. He immediately asks everyone where she went, but the staff as well as the other patrons have suddenly come down with a severe case of amnesia. What did she look like? Who was she again?

When he goes to police, he is greeted with a “we can do what we can do” attitude. Which isn’t much, even after he goes along with the implication and bribes the detective. Dad doesn’t seem to be of any help either. He claims that when women come to Spain for the first time, it’s natural for them to get caught up in all of the atmosphere and excitement and just run off. She’ll come home, he says, when she’s ready. But David isn’t hearing any of it. He just knows something is wrong.

From here on out we tread familiar territory as we watch David try to get his woman back. Our bad guy, The White Arab, is appropriately creepy, nasty, and always one step ahead of anyone who might try and cross him. The plot moves around somewhat predictably until the last ten minutes, where things don’t go exactly as you think they might. These sequences definitely raise the overall rating of the movie from a “don’t see at all” to a rental. The screenwriter does a good job tying up the theme in a way you didn’t see coming, a nice twist on a familiar plot. While not great, Slave does offer just enough to keep the viewer entertained.

Slave (2009)