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How much weight did Antonia Campbell-Hughes lose to play a paedophile's muse? Apparently he kept her malnourished so she'd look more like daddy's little girl.
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At a glance:
3096 Days (2013) by
Sherry Hormann (
Desert Flower, 2009) is based on the 2010 autobiography of
Natascha Maria Kampusch, the Austrian woman known for her abduction at the age of 10 back in 1998. Kampusch was held in a secret cellar by her kidnapper
Wolfgang Přiklopil for more than eight years, until she escaped in 2006. The lass has gotten worldwide attention since and she's some kinda celebrity activist now, takin pics with Sri Lankan kids and whatnot.
Bad news on the doorstep:
Since the movie is based on her account of the harrowin events, we get a decent technical runaround e.g. the renovated dungeon and other physical details of the incarceration. However, while
Antonia Campbell-Hughes really gives her all as Natascha and
Thure Lindhardt makes a memorable villain, the little emotions are absent in this screenplay and her terrible ordeal -- one that you would expect to be riddled with desperation, reflection and total anguish -- seems as if it wasn't even a true story. Guess what? Maybe it isn't. There are plenty of documented instances where Miss Kampusch was caught lyin about the details and you can read online the many competin theories as to what really happened durin those 3096 days. See, some people think she's not so much a victim as she makes herself out to be. Apparently, she even cried when told about the fate of her abductor. All the speculation is infinitely more fascinatin than the movie proper, so do give it a Google. Read the IMDb boards, if you like. It would surely go some way towards explainin why these characters seem so one-dimensional. There simply isn't enough goin on here to convince the viewer than Natascha was bein held against her will.
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| "Fuck. I'm gonna miss prom night." |
Perennial wonderment:
Maybe if the renowned German filmmaker and director
Bernd Eichinger didn't die with his unfinished script, we'd have a better movie. After all, he did option her book and wanted
Kate Winslet for Natascha, you know? Couldn't been like
The Reader (2008), maybe. Anyway, this movie is apparently also based on his unfinished script.
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Thirtysomething Antonia Campbell-Hughes playing a thirteen-year-old girl?
It would've been illegal to cast someone true-to-age, perhaps.
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| Home but never alone. |
Reminds me of:
A bit of
Trade (2007) and
The Reader (2008)
but those were well above average movies. This one's more like
The Seasoning House (2012) if you're talkin about how hollow it feels.
I can't remember if I cried:
The sight of
Antonia Campbell-Hughes in all her frail nakedness invites disgust and some sympathy but it's hard to invest in her character because we don't get to see what makes her tick. Some sequences in this drama approach art but somethin just ain't right with the whole setup. By the way, extended scenes of the girl in the nude do serve as one of the few ways by which we can feel some force of realism behind the turns of events, so you're pretty much completely shortchanged if you're watchin anythin less than the 1hr50min cut.
Most memorable line:
None. However I would like to mention that the dubbed British English dialogue is rather strange and off-puttin. Did they manage to go as far as they wanted to with this production idea?
One reviewer I read remarked that you get Irish and Danish actors, playin Austrian people who talk with German accents.
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Some of them want to use you.
Some of them want to be of use. |
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
A follow-up movie oughtta be interestin. One that disputes her version of events. It would've been a more meaningful endeavour that would've been taken seriously if little
Amelia Pidgeon played the girl throughout the whole show, without an older actress supplantin her. Meanwhile, we can all watch
Michael (2011) or go kidnap our own pre-pubescent chick to see for ourselves if it really is this easy to keep a girl in your cellar for 3096 days and take her out shoppin once in a while.
★★
Bonus material:
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So this is what Miss Kampusch does with her time these days.
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| Young Amelia Pidgeon. When will she be able to watch her own movie, I wonder? |
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Like an Olsen twin gone wrong, eh?
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| That's Sherry Hormann, the director. |
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| This guy really reminds me of my friend, Ben. |
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