Reclaim

Nat Geo has better produced "Bad Stuffs Happened to Tourists" documentaries. While Reclaim has a good intention of showcasing human trafficking issue, the absolute mess that is its production will not reach out to anyone. Practically any element of the movie suffers, from the shabby acting, poorly constructed action scenes, choppy editing to cheap plot devices. It even goes to the realm of implausibility at times, making it a below average movie, even by the standard of B-movie. Story follows a couple who tries to adopt a little girl, strangely in an exotic place. Steven (Ryan Phillippe) and Rachel (Rachelle Lefevre) have no idea that the adoption process is a scam. From there they fall deeper into tourist trap and have to face Benjamin (John Cusack) for their money and possible survival. Acting is flimsy even though the leads have pretty respectable resumes. The husband and wife are probably the less awful personalities to watch, it's supposed to be easy to root for them, but they rehearse the same sad story and make incredibly dubious decisions. Ryan Phillippe and Rachelle Lefevre perform decently, although the script doesn't really support them. At least they are believable enough as the couple. John Cusack doesn't deliver a stellar performance. He seems more disgruntled than menacing here. All the other characters are simply too detached, but the worst is the cast of Briana Roy as Nina. The film relies on relationships between the new parents and the child, and she's just not capable to exhibit that kind of chemistry yet. Most of the time Nina would just stand rigidly, and it's partially the mishap of the directing effort. Scenes are not put in smooth fashion, it almost seems like the actors are confused mid-scene. The movie already starts slow, but as it progresses it becomes silly, using poor plot devices for dramatic effect. As though fooled by online scam isn’t precarious enough, the characters often dive to one inconceivably bad situation to the next. After a while the camera work degrades significantly. It's wobbly on the action, especially a couple of chase scenes which are confusing at best. Towards the end it awkwardly implements CGI from last decade instead of actual action choreography. This looks very plastic and unconvincing, the practical effect doesn't fare better with ridiculous fake blood. It also fails to utilize the exotic scenery as it goes into random abandoned building, alleyway or forest when it needs to deliver the climax. Whatever message and decent premise Reclaim might have, they are utterly squandered by the abysmal production value. If you want a better experience of the premise, Nat Geo or even Youtube documentary will provide that for you.

This movie is a waste of time. I didn't straight watching it, I was combining it with music and from time to time The Ellen Show, because it's not worth the attention. I give 1, because the topic is something, that people should be educated, especially those who want to adopt. You have to adopt children from secure orphanages and not just random people, dealing with a lot of money.