“Kidnapping Stella” review | ‘Bad’ is praise for Netflix’s weakest suspense

In recent days, Kidnapping Stella has been among the most talked about movies on Netflix. At first I thought it was yet another unknown version of the catalog. However, it is a supposed German thriller that has been in the catalog for some time and has been ‘rediscovered’ recently.

A remake of a British thriller, the German version tells the story of two kidnappers who kidnap Stella (Jella Haase) from the streets and take her to soundproof captivity. The aim of this crime is to extort the father of the victim and obtain a millionaire ransom. The problem is, one of the hijackers knows the victim and there begins reverse Stockholm syndrome.

Torn between obtaining the money and taking charge of the victim, the criminal begins to be manipulated by Stella who desperately seeks to escape captivity. This causes a series of confusion and intrigue between the two thugs, which leads nowhere, as the partner only finds out about the relationship between criminal and victim until at the 45th half, when what was already cliché manages to become. even more cliché.

Directed by Thomas Sieben, the film even has an interesting premise, but it’s so poorly executed that it fails to cause any discomfort or that sense of urgency in audiences. It’s because the plot villains are so stupid, yet so stupid, that they make the Forgotten Me invaders look like crime geniuses. And look, they’ve been beaten twice by a child.

If the movie didn’t try to take itself so seriously, it might be possible to buy it as a tense comedy, but even that wouldn’t happen. It’s annoying, as the film does everything to be “down to earth”, bringing back some typical scenes from assault films, only that the situation is so absurd that there are moments worthy of laughing. However, to be fair to the film, there is only one sequence that really justifies placing this feature in the “thriller” genre, which is a moment of recorded torture in which a member of Stella can or. not to be cut. The construction of the tension on this doubt is very good, but it does not yet make 1h20 of film. The intro is also interesting, but it’s 5 minutes long and it’s probably the only time the criminals aren’t stupid. Complicated.

Either way, with a weak script, suspense worthy of a Family Cases episode, and irrelevant performances, Kidnapping Stella is silly and not worth the little screen time. It’s almost unjustifiable because this movie was recently commented on.

Enjoy watching:

Make sure to watch: