Inescapable

Inescapable is a low budget generic action thriller with a Taken vibe. It is set in a Syria before they had civil turmoil with the Assad regime.

Alexander Siddig is Adib Abdel Kareem a man who fled Syria some years earlier as he was accused of being an Israeli spy. He has made a new life for himself in Canada.

He receives news that his daughter Muna (Jay Anstey) has gone missing in Damascus and must return to Damascus many years later to confront his past.

Adib enlists the help of an his ex-fiancée Fatima (Marisa Tomei) to help him while he is in Syria. He gets help from the Canadian embassy Paul (Joshua Jackson) and tracks down old associates and rivals such as Sayid (Oded Fehr.)

The unusual setting of Syria which is reality a police state gives the film some intrigue as you always have the sense of being watched and betrayal not being far behind.

The plot however does feel like Taken without much of the action and violence. Siddig is very effective in a meaty role but not a lot happens as he looks for clues to track down his daughter and stay one step ahead of his pursuers and double crossers. Its tense and watchable enough, Marisa Tomei lends it a lot of credibility but I felt it should had been a lot better.

I was very pleased to see this movie was willing to bring the action, as good as Ruba Nadda's romantic-leaning films Cairo Time and Sabah were. But where this film about a father who flies to a dangerous land to rescue his daughter from an unknown threat is different from Taken is that the hero is flesh and blood and approaches the problem in a civilized way first and by the time there is fighting we can feel a sense of consequence.

It has been said that the movie starts off fast. It starts as it should and as I reflected afterwards it avoids stock shots of a plane taking off and gives the impression of travel with aerial shot of a road the hero is riding along in a car. Cinematic short-hand. At the same time, it manages to avoid scenes that would be obvious beats in a lesser movie, like the panic of the mother upon learning of the crisis. Instead we see the moment before, as she watches her husband on the phone preparing to make the trip and confront the problem. There is just enough of the Canadian wife in this movie, considering that she would not compete with Marisa Tomei who "blends" into her environment and feels authentic. Even to the end I am thinking I hope Tomei's character makes out alright.

Alexander Siddig is not playing a super human but someone who is willing to face the worst and some real consequences to find his daughter. Joshua Jackson as a Canadian embassy guy manages to show several divergent aspects of his role without falling into any traps that would be central to a lesser movie with similar layers. Had Siddig been playing a typical action hero, he would have to cross a line into sociopath to clear away all the bad guys at once. He gets some good shots in and we can cheer for him, and one secret police figure is especially smug and needs to be killed but the way this film arrives at what has to happen is to take a left turn into character-motivated choices that are refreshing for the genre. Where there is tension, we are absolutely rooted in the reality of the moment by Siddig's expression. This is real for him and for us.

I have read a comment/review here on IMDb by one "A P" that seems to be a screaming stream of lies, one after the other. I contest his claim that people walked out during the TIFF screening. The movie grabs your attention and Siddig has a strong presence. There is a reason for every scene and not a moment is wasted. Any politics I took for granted. One villain is identified as Israeli but even he is redeemed. This is not a political tract. As I watched the story unfold as a Caucasian Canadian male I looked at the cultural aspect as colour that Ruba brings but the concept of a hero's descent into a special and dangerous world is one that we know and accept as classic myth. I had no problem identifying with Siddig's character, often called "Mr. Toronto" by an innkeeper in the film, and seeing it through his eyes. I am stunned by the current low numerical rating this movie has on IMDb and I trust that the more people see it the more the rating will improve. I noticed in a TIFF guide or other such publication Inescapable was misidentified as a romance. There is a restrained and heartbreaking lost love woven through the story, but it is a thriller that is correctly paced and set- up. It has action, though the build up is half the entertainment. I highly recommend seeing this movie.

Adib Abdel Kareem (Alexander Siddig) lives a comfortable life in Toronto under an alternate identity. He has two daughters but has told them nothing about his past in Syria. He was a military intelligence officer but left under mysterious circumstances 20 years ago. His oldest daughter Muna has disappeared after going to Damascus behind his back. He sneaks back into the country with the help of ex-fiancée Fatima (Marisa Tomei). He talks to Canadian Embassy officer Paul Ridge (Joshua Jackson) and former fellow workmate Sayid (Oded Fehr) as he navigates the dangerous police state.

This movie seems to be caught between a realistic movie and a Bourne-like thriller. It fails as either and it struggles to be better. It's great to have Siddig as the lead. The problem is that I can't believe his character wouldn't be snatched up by any one of the random secret police agents. His supposed crime is too big to ignore. The daughter is too naive. It would have been more logical if she's researching in Turkey and gets kidnapped into Syria. Also having Tomei as an Arab does raise an eyebrow. A lot of little things limit the believability. It doesn't work as an action thriller either. It is terribly flat and has low intensity despite the exotic setting. The few action sequences seem weak and out of place. I would like a realistic take on the 2012 police-state Syria. I can't buy it here.

After reading some other reviews of this film online, I was expecting to be slightly disappointed...but was pleasantly surprised by it. Having been a fan of Ruba Nadda's other films, (and a general groupie of anything involving Alexander Siddig), I was eager to see her newest film as part of the CIFF.

The movie starts rather abruptly, and just dives in to the plot - A man, Adib (who is originally from Syria but has lived in Toronto for the past 25 years) goes to Damascus to search for his adult daughter who has gone missing while traveling there. This sudden, rather stark beginning is very different from Nadda's last major film, (the subtle and slow paced "Cairo Time") but, it works: The story develops naturally in a somewhat frantic way (in keeping with the protagonists understandable anxiety) from this stark beginning, and we learn more and more about Adib's past and just why his daughter is in such danger. Marisa Tomei is also particularly convincing as the lover that Adib left behind suddenly some 2 decades ago, and Siddig is of course, flawless as always.

Without revealing too much of the plot, I will say (having traveled through Syria), that director Nadda has done a brilliant job of capturing the somewhat concerning climate of a police state, while also illuminating the rather conflicting general atmosphere of Damascus- haunting, beautiful, blue- tinted layers of history, coupled with this very brutal military presence.

This is a real departure for Nadda, shooting a political thriller as opposed to a romantic drama, but I think she succeeds simply for the fact that watching it, I felt like I WAS in Damascus...and she was able to convey this in a film she shot in only 29 days, in South Africa (the Syrian government obviously not having let her film there).

While there could have been slightly more character development in some cases, I found the film to be beautifully shot, and it kept its pace suitable to the subject matter.

Adib's (Alexander Siddig) daughter goes missing in Damascus, Syria and he must go and find her; but Adib has a secret that has kept him from Syria for 20-years. Actually, 2-secrets. This whole movie hinges on the reason his daughter went to Damascus in the first place when she was supposed to be on her way home to Toronto, Canada.

This is very slow going, but consider that if Adib goes back to a country that he escaped from and if caught now he would be arrested. He knows the customs of the country and still knows some people who are in high places, sort of. Language is no problem as he knows Arabic. Ah, but he does go back and knows he must approach everything slowly as there are many secret police units all over the place in this police state.

Adib needs help from someone who can do the things he needs done to find his daughter. The help comes from Fatima (Marisa Tomei) who Adib was supposed to marry back in the day, but he escaped and never made contact with her again. And, to be sure, Fatima tells him all about it in a rough and tumble way; and she is still in love with him. Okay, so now you know one secret.

So he goes to the Canadian Embassy (Adib is a Canadian citizen) for any help they can provide. He goes to see his old friend in Syrian Military Intelligence, and tries to run down a old Russian spy he knew back in the day to get his help. Adib knows he is being watched by factions of the Secret Police and is acutely aware that he could be arrested at any moment as now people are beginning to see him and do some research about him. But, no tension is felt.

This is sometimes suspenseful, but the tension is not there. The acting is fine all around, but also halting as one would expect in a place like this where one must choose one's words carefully. But, still no tension.

One thing that bothered me was that he wanders all over Damascus in a new Western suit, which stuck out like a sore thumb; and later he walks around openly in a newly pressed ultra white dress shirt. He should have worn things to blend in more, but the director didn't see it that way. She was never a spy. HA !

You will enjoy this if you take Adib's character to be your own. Sometimes you may ask yourself if you would have done anything different aside from the suit and the white shirt, of course. He knows people and needs to ask favors and he has to be careful about it. And, yes, he does get beaten up at times, but still no tension. If there was a way to get tension in here this would be a very good movie. It needed tension. (5/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, not much.