Reckless

Released by: Artsploitation Films
Released on: July 14th, 2015.
Director: Joram Lí¼rsen
Cast: Marwan Kenzari, Tygo Gernandt, Sarah Chronis
Year: 2014
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The Movie:

Reckless (or Bloedlink in its native tongue) is a Dutch remake of the 2009 British film The Disappearance Of Alice Creed. In this version, a beautiful young woman named Laura Temming (Sarah Chronis) wakes up to find herself tied to a bed in a bleak room with sound proof acoustic tiles on the walls. Two armed men, Rico (Marwan Kenzari) and Victor (Tygo Gernandt), their faces hidden behind masks, strip off her clothes and take photographs of her. When they're done, they put her into a blue sweat suit and make sure she's properly shackled.

The point? The pictures are going to be sent off to her father, a very wealthy business man, in hopes of receiving a nice four million Euro ransom for her return. They give their ultimatum and they wait… and as they do poor Sarah starts to wonder why one of the men seems so familiar to her.

Reckless is a tense, and sometimes unpleasant, thriller that twists and turns its way to a pretty damn satisfying conclusion. The buildup is handled well so that as the plot gets moving you're hooked and you want to see where this is all going - which is interesting considering how so much of this revolves around only three people in a room. As limited it as it in that regard, if you're lucky enough to go into this one blind (and in this case not seeing the original version is definitely an asset), there's a pretty good chance you're going to wind up getting pretty wound up in it. Sometimes less is more.

The movie is well put together. The editing is quite efficient, and at times pretty clever, enhancing the tension with some well-placed cuts. Additionally the camera work is top notch here, getting in nice and close when it needs to capture some reaction shots as the story calls for it.

Really though, it's one key performance that really makes this work. Marwan Kenzari and Tygo Gernandt are good as the two thugs behind all of this. They're well cast and they are convincingly able to act in a fashion that's intimidating enough that we never have trouble buying them in their roles. Sarah Chronis is the real star of the show, however. Her ability to convey a pretty impressive range of emotions is a big part of what makes her performance so strong here. As the story unfolds and her character arc starts to evolve, it's interesting to see how her work shifts as Laura's position and personality shift.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Reckless is framed at 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen on this DVD release from Artsploitation Films and it looks quite good. Detail is just fine for a standard definition presentation and if this isn't the most colorful movie ever made, the drab interiors and dark colored wardrobe worn by the cast are reproduced accurately enough. There are no issues with any authoring quirks and as this was shot digitally, no problems with any print damage.
Audio chores are handled by a Dutch language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track with optional subtitles provided in English only. There are definitely some scenes where the surround mix heightens mood and tension but a lot of the mix comes from the front channels. This is nicely mixed though, it sounds good and provides clear dialogue and properly balanced levels.
Extras are slim, limited to a trailer for the feature and trailers for a few other titles also handled by Artsploitation Films.
The Final Word:

Reckless is well made, tense and occasionally quite unsettling. The acting is very strong here and the production values are very strong as well. Artsploitation's DVD is light on extras but it looks and sounds quite nice. Recommended.