The Disappearance of Alice Creed is a twisty, provocative British thriller featuring a breakout performance from Gemma Arterton. You may have caught her in the recent popcorn flicks Prince of Persia or Clash of the Titans, two movies in which she is largely relegated to arm candy for the leading men.
It is refreshing to see the sultry actress show us the range of her acting prowess. As Alice Creed, she gives a gritty, brave performance that you won’t soon forget.
The film begins with two men meticulously preparing a room to serve as a temporary housing for a kidnapping victim. It seems that every tiny detail has been addressed. The room is soundproofed and padded, the bed is bolted to the floor, and the room has been stripped bare of anything that could be used as weaponry.
The two men don masks and drive an outfitted van to their victim, a one Alice Creed. Soon, she is shackled to the bed and stripped naked. It’s a difficult scene to watch, and horribly degrading.
It would be very easy to write off the movie at this early juncture as being yet another torture-porn genre film, but don’t be so quick to judge. That graphic and frightening scene sets up some interesting plot points for later, and makes better sense after you have the context of the whole movie behind it.
Fortunately, it is quickly apparent that the men have no interest in Alice sexually. They cloth her in a jogging suit they provide, and don’t seem to have much interest in actually harming her. Instead, they want to extort some money from her wealthy father, by making him pay a kidnap ransom.
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