Susan Granger’s review of “Kidnapping Mr. Heineken” (Alchemy)
Set in 1983 in Amsterdam, this true-life thriller revolves around a group of childhood pals who kidnapped the chairman/ CEO of Heineken International and held him for the largest ransom ever paid for one individual.
Gathering at the local pub, five cash-strapped mates – William Holleeder (Sam Worthington), Cor Van Hout (Jim Sturgess), Jan “Cat” Boellard (Ryan Kwaten), Frans “Spikes” Meijer (Mark Van Eeuwen) and Martin “Brakes” Erkamps (Thomas Cocquerel) – devise a get-rich-quick scheme that involves snatching the beer tycoon, one of the richest men in the world, and demanding 35 million Dutch guilders. That’s approx. 16 million Euros or a whopping $21 million dollars.
While it’s not difficult to kidnap Alfred “Freddy” Heineken (Anthony Hopkins), trouble erupts while they’re holding him and his chauffeur, Ab Doderer (David Dencik”), prisoners in their “hideaway” and waiting impatiently for their lucrative payoff.
Not surprisingly, the bickering buddies have different objectives. And Heineken is able to manipulate them by engaging in clever psychological warfare.
As Heineken astutely observes, “There are two ways a man can be rich in this world: you can have money or you can have friends. But you cannot have both.”
Adapted by William Brookfield from Peter R. de Vries’s book and directed by Daniel Alfredson (“The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”), the crime drama proceeds at a plodding pace, although Anthony Hopkins ignites every scene he’s in.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Kidnapping Mr. Heineken” is a foreseeable 5, explaining what happened afterwards in the closing credits.
