In Your Hands (2010)
It has tended to be a good sign for any film if it has Kristin Scott Thomas in it recently. Even if you don't like the film, you're likely to find Scott Thomas is fantastic anyway: Only God Forgives, Sarah's Key, Love Crime, I've Loved You So Long. She is regularly brilliant.
Sadly "In Your Hands" is an instance where the film would be worthless without her. This is a film about a woman who is kidnapped and then experiences Stockholm Syndrome afterwards. What's more we actually start mid-way through the story, with our protagonist already having escaped from the villain. Our protagonist walks into a police station but then seems unable to give a statement.
I wonder whether the filmmakers were expecting the audience to suffer from Stockholm Syndrome too? I'm afraid following our protagonists plight as she is trapped in a small room, I never at any point felt anything but hatred for her captor. I'm afraid that even the sob story about how the man's wife had died during a surgical procedure and how Scott Thomas's character had been her doctor made me no more sympathetic to his campaign of terror on an innocent woman. I was even less sympathetic when it turned out that he was not used to cooking or cleaning without his wife. When your own captive has to explain to you that you suck at cooking, you are pretty clearly pathetic. Perhaps French kidnapping victims have more demanding tastes? Whatever.
Kristin Scott Thomas is brilliant. The film is morally bankrupt. The whole purpose of the film is to make me feel sorry for a man who kidnaps a woman. Give me a break! I'd be rating this even lower if it wasn't for Scott Thomas' amazing performance.
D-