Whether you've watched it or not, when you turn on Netflix, you've all seen this thumbnail of a man lying on the ground among people running. It's no surprise, as the film has been in the streaming platform's Top 10 since its release in mid-April. Upon its launch, it reached number one in 31 countries and was in the top ten in 92 territories. At the time of writing, it's still in fifth place in France. Proof that subscribers are passionate about this thriller inspired by a true story. We're obviously talking about iHostage.
What is iHostage about?
The lowercase i in front of the title is no coincidence or marketing ploy to stand out from the 56,963 films titled Hostage on IMDB (we're hardly exaggerating). Indeed, the reference to Apple's police force in naming its products (iPhone, iPad, iPouletRôti) is intentional and takes us back to February 22, 2022, when a hostage situation took place in an Apple Store in the heart of Amsterdam, the Dutch capital. A story that the film intends to tell as faithfully as possible.
Ahmad, an armed man covered in explosives, bursts into the store and intends to take customers and employees hostage in exchange for a huge sum of money in bitcoin. The police, the intervention team, and the negotiators will do everything to avoid the worst and save the man Ahmad is holding at his side, as well as the small group hiding in a store closet. The unpredictability of the perpetrator makes things very complicated.
Recommended for lovers of realism
It is often said that Hollywood is capable of adapting even the smallest news story to the screen, with beautiful stories being born from the smallest stories, three days after the events. In this game, one should not underestimate Dutch director Bobby Boermans, who manages to seize on a current event that occurred three years earlier – or even less if we count the actual start of the project. It must be said that the man is fond of hostage-taking stories since his previous work, the series The Golden Hour, played on the same field.
If we had to highlight the major difference between iHostage and many thrillers inspired by real events, beyond the very heavy emphasis on the Apple brand and Red Bull, it is the care taken with the realism of the incident. The film avoids any sensationalism for an approach as close as possible to reality. The fictional additions are more tools to bring narrative and emotional depth. We feel that the director researched the chronology of events and the actors present that day for an almost documentary approach.
This avoids several clichés of the genre such as the heroic figure, the forced Machiavellianism of the villain, the courage of the hostage, etc. Certainly, these kinds of scenes exist in iHostage, but imposed by necessity and fear. On the other hand, there are sometimes sequences of suspended, anti-climatic moments, Boermans seeking to impose the action in real time. The characters thus seem more alive, credible, because they obey non-script rules, more human.
Not recommended for fans of tense thrillers
A search for credibility that will win over many Netflix subscribers, while perhaps assuming to distance itself from a part of the audience. Because the downside is obviously the risk of displeasing those who came looking for the complete opposite, with an omnipresent tension.
It must be admitted, without even knowing the true story, we rarely feel the danger posed by Ahmad, as the hostage-taker may be determined, but he seems particularly lost and ill-prepared. The film relies mainly on discussions between the man and his prisoner or with the negotiator, a Naomi Watts lookalike. And everyone is especially trying to save time on the ending and the length of the film. It's in this kind of situation that we appreciate the choice of the feature film rather than the series.
The production itself doesn't try to make waves, filming events in a formal manner in order to privilege the story and the characters at the expense of suspense. So that a special forces intervention on the first floor has the same energy as taking medication on the ground floor. Little pace, but a film that has the merit of not dragging on.
The bottom line is that iHostage is more like news without vibration. Not unpleasant in its current state due to its desire not to fall into the stereotypes of the genre, but it nevertheless manages its stress factor to the bare minimum. It's easy to understand how the film manages to find its audience, us first and foremost, while also accepting just as easily that some might give up along the way. We've seen Netflix's Top 10 far worse.
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