Kidnapping Mr. Heineken (2015) (English Language)

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Review

95min

Cast: Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Anthony Hopkins…and more

Writers: William Brookfield, Peter R. de Vries

Big-screen dramatization of the real 1983 kidnapping of Dutch CEO and heir to the Heineken beer empire Freddy Heineken, a well planned Amsterdam operation which resulted in the largest ever private ransom paid at the time, but did a group of Dutch amateurs pull-off a notorious and unlikely score or a 20 million dollar failure?

Swedish action/thriller director Daniel Alfredson brings together a cast of mostly Australian and British talent who play real-life Dutch people in a European production, the “Heineken Kidnapping” was fascinating real-life crime story that made global headlines and has already been depicted in 2011’s Dutch film ‘De Heineken ontvoering’ .

Whether ‘Kidnapping Mr. Heineken’ is a remake of this or a new dramatization it’s a very clear example of how a real story can be far more interesting than its cinematic depictions.

The film begins with a very brief exposition of the main characters involved and an unconvincing motivation for why a group of builder friends, who like many suffered from the recession in the early 80s, would kidnap one of the most prominent members of Dutch society for one of the largest private ransoms’ ever.

A couple of out-of-place “Miami Vice-style” chases later and we are into the heart of the film with this ragtag group of amateur kidnappers meticulously planning and executing the kidnapping, as the pace of the film changes it stars to gradually lose momentum and becomes a tedious drama about the breaking down of the group dynamic as the pressure gets to them while they await the authorities to respond to their demands.

‘Kidnapping Mr. Heineken’ ultimately feels and flows like a TV-movie or some sort of high-budget History Channel “docu-drama”, given some of the actors involved this is disappointing to say the least.

Sir. Anthony Hopkins as “Mr. Heineken” himself seems to be the greedy talisman against which the common man will take action in a sort of parallel with today’s backlash against corporate greed but ultimately the character and Hopkins himself seem almost superfluous to the story, indeed all the performances are adequate at most in what is an ultimately underwhelming drama.

We won’t give away the ending, although a 2 second Wikipedia search would do that, but although based on a fascinating true story ‘Kidnapping Mr. Heineken’ is a competent and informative if only mildly entertaining crime drama.