a5c7b9f00b Years after he left Damascus under suspicious circumstances, Adib Abdel Kareem must confront what he left behind when his daughter goes missing. Unknown to him, Syrian-Canadian Adib Abdul-Kareem&#39;s eldest daughter Muna, a photographer, has traveled to his homeland to find out more about her father,he had never talked about his Syrian past to his family. He does learn about her travels only because she has gone missing in Damascus, most of her belongings still in her hotel room. Adib decides to head back to Damascus to find her, and enlists the help of his old girlfriend Fatima, a Canadian diplomat named Paul, and an old colleague Sayid to find Muna while he&#39;s in Damascus, some who seem to know more about Muna&#39;s disappearance than they initially let on to Adib. Adib does this all at his own personal riskhe used to work in the Syrian military secret service, and was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death for purportedly being an Israeli spy. Adib, who managed to get back into Syria on an illegal visa with Fatima&#39;s help, has to uncover why Muna has gone missing and if it has anything to do with his Syrian past. He also has to reconcile with Fatima, who long felt abandoned by Adib when he left the country thirty years ago. This was such an amazing movie. I saw it with my parents at TIFF, then by luck again on the 2nd screening because I had heard Alexander Siddig may be there and I have been a huge fan of his ever since his Star Trek days. And he surely he was there, answering questions, lovelyyou can imagine. Inescapable was an amazing tour DE force. Alexander was stunning in it. Contained, raw, selfish, brutal, emotional, stunning. The director was also on hand for the 2nd screening and she talked about the difficulties making this movie and the threats she received from the Syrian state government. This movie was excellent, and not in a Hollywood, cheesy way. Well told, well written. I am curious about some of the comments here - no one walked out at RTH gala - in fact, there was a resounding standing ovation. It was well deservedwell. The ending was beautiful, heart breaking and I never cry and this, like Cairo time&#39;s ending, snuck up on me. Some of the comments (specifically from AP) seem to be similar to the comments on you tube and I am curious to see if it is negative comments from the supporters of the president regime. I wouldn&#39;t be surprised. This movie and the story was haunting and I am happy when the filmmakers mentioned the sale to the US. This movie deserves to be seen. Alexander Siddig and Marisa Tomei gave Oscar worthy performances. Over complicated and taking itself way too seriously Inescapable tries to craft an intelligent and complex thriller but despite a few twists and turns and a leading man that does well enough it just failed to really grab my attention. It certainly wasn&#39;t that the film dragged, in fact the hour and a half flew by and there is plenty of action and intrigue and yet for some unknown reason I just didn&#39;t care about any of it. I wish I could explain it better but there isn&#39;t any one reason why it doesn&#39;t work. It is just missing something. At times I felt like I was losing track of what was going on and what this mysterious background was of this father desperately looking for his daughter. It felt like it was trying to be a more political version of Liam Neeson&#39;s Taken. It very loosely touches on the political turmoil of Damascus but then at the same time I&#39;m not sure they used itmuchthey could have. The cinematography felt bland and empty and some of the supporting characters felt underdeveloped. I do feel like there was a lot of potential here because the script is decent andI said there is plenty of action but it all comes acrossbeing without any real merit and that&#39;s unfortunate.<br/><br/>Alexander Siddig is excellent in his role. There is absolutely nothing wrong with his performancethe protective father with an old secret that he has been running from. He is believable and shows a lot of intensity in his role. Joshua Jackson is much better of an actor than you would think from his performance in this. I feel like he sincerely misses his mark and almost seems bored in this performance. There is no chemistry between him and Siddig and he absolutely does not give this his all. Marisa Tomei is borderline pointless in this film. Her bad accent and deer in the headlights performance is annoying and barely existent. A great character actor, Oded Fehr is very good in his role but its such an unfortunately small part. I feel like he should have had a far more vital part in the whole story but sadly he does not though he has one very good scene towards the end when he is getting the truth out of Siddig.<br/><br/>To call the story convoluted is an understatement. There is a lot of intrigue and back story and to be honest I am not sure I even understand a single thing that happened. And yet at the same time, I never got even remotely invested enough to really try and understand it. I didn&#39;t feel like everyone was putting their entire heart into the film and I think that&#39;s where it falls apart. Ruba Nadda is apparently a very well respected writer and director but I simply felt like this was poorly shot and put together. Even the climatic reunion of father and daughter felt like it was lacking any depth. I&#39;m not sure what drew me to try this and I&#39;m not sorry I did because I have seen worse but this just felt so very empty. I wouldn&#39;t recommend it to anyone looking for any sort of powerful story because it misses the mark in a big way. 5/10 Inescapable isn't a terrible movie, but absent its ripped-from-the-headlines setting it's unremarkable.
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