THERE’S NO ABDUCTION IN ABDUCTION UNLESS YOUR EYES & EARS ARE HIJACKED FOR AN HOUR OR SO
Why Abduction? Easy: So Taylor Lautner, who plays Nathan, he can show off his body, good looks, and his martial arts skill to build a cult following. The film first establishes Nathan as a shy 18-year-old who has been trained to fight by his father. But one day Serbian terrorists arrive in the United States, seeking Nathan so they can blackmail his birthfather, a voice without a face in the film, to get names of 15 American traitors. Why they need the names is unclear. Nathan lives with his adoptive parents, who are killed at home, where the Serbs hope to snatch him. But he escapes, eluding even the CIA, accompanied by a high school girlfriend Karen (played by Lily Collins). When CIA officer Burton (played by Alfred Molina) finally catches up with them, more gunfire is exchanged and the chase continues. The bad guys, of course, will inevitably lose. But the script has insensitive language: Instead of referring to his biological parents as birthparents, they are called “real parents,” as if adoptive parents are somehow unreal. And the adoptive parents, who share no observable biological traits with Nathan, foolishly fail to disclose that they adopted him until a moment in the film when Nathan finally asks. (Why not long before?) In the end, what will happen to Nathan, now without family because his birthfather refuses contact? Does director John Singleton, a Political Film Society awardwinner, plan a sequel? MH