Captivity review

“Why do bad things happen to good people?” leers Captivity’s mystery-man kidnapper. Director Roland Joffe must be wondering the same thing. The former craftsman of prestige pics like The Killing Fields here pays the bills with a slice of softcore torture porn starring Elisha Cuthbert as a lonely supermodel trapped in a cellar of terrors. There are hints of De Palma in Joffe’s mirrorliplens fetishism and a few splatters of fiendish invention: ears ‘n’ eyes smoothie, anyone? But once the initial dread wears off, we’re left with numbing repetition (Cuthbert passes out more often than Pete Doherty) en route to a big reveal that drains the designer sadism’s last dregs of credibility. Like Black Snake Moan, this is a film where poster campaign proves more provocative than content.