“The Kidnapping of Arabella” – With no ransom [MOVIE REVIEW]

“The Kidnapping of Arabella” is an engaging movie out of left field that defies description. Reminiscent of early Wes Anderson movies where scenes seem to stand alone or actors break the fourth wall, relating their rather disjointed stories directly to the audience. Here, Carolina Cavalli, the writer and director, has given us a very funny, almost existential story taken to absurd lengths.

Arabella, beautiful to look at, is the very spoiled and entitled eight-year old daughter of Oreste, a prominent writer. Due to be honored that evening for his latest book, he calls Arabella as his car waits to take them to the event. Not in any hurry, when she arrives she demands that they first go to Taco King. She must have a Taco King. She cannot function without a Taco King. Pointing out that they are on the way to dinner, she goes into full meltdown mode, screaming all the way to the party that he will be very sorry if they don’t stop at Taco King. She will disrupt his talk. She’ll tell the world that he doesn’t pay his taxes; that he’s jealous of Jonathan Franzen; that he abuses her. Obviously used to Arabella’s machinations, Oreste ignores her threats. Big mistake. True to her word, she waits until he begins reading from his latest, award-winning work and starts shouting all the things she promised, louder and louder until he can no longer ignore the disruption. Non-plussed, he steps down, goes to her table, grabs her hand and removes her from the room. Depositing her with his chauffeur, he instructs him to take her to Taco King and then straight home.

Despite her young age, Arabella has a soul that is a black hole of retribution and ignominy. Waiting in the car as the chauffeur goes in for her Taco King, Arabella is looking for a way to cause further harm to her father. Denied nothing material, it might be surmised that it is attention she craves, attention that busy parents may not have provided. Still, most children her age would not go to the lengths she has up her sleeve. Refusing to wait for her Taco King, she leaves the car and drags her leg with an imaginary limp onto the parking lot. It is there that she spies Holly, sitting in her car, contemplating the time-space continuum and how there seems to be no place for her. Not as privileged as Arabella, she clearly has the manipulation gene as we witness her successful attempts at blackmail, albeit on a very minor scale. Her biggest yield so far is a coerced free order of french fries in the Taco King. Woe to Holly when Arabella spies her and demands to be taken with her. One look at Arabella, her limp, her angelic face belying an obvious devious nature, and Holly is convinced that Arabella is her in an earlier life come to usher her out of the errors of her ways. Holly, clearly, isn’t all there and it takes very little for Arabella to catch on to what she needs to be to Holly for her to get her way. And off they go on their adventure with Holly wholeheartedly believing that Arabella is herself at the age when everything seemed to go wrong. It is a tribute to the absurdity of Cavalli’s script that all belief is suspended as the two mismatched girls go on an adventure, leaving everyone else behind. Foremost among them is the policeman in love with and ignored by Holly and Arabella’s parents who remain remarkably calm given the circumstances.

Nothing in the film is believable, but that is the point. The characters are both larger and smaller than life. There are no questions and certainly no answers, just occasional scene breaks where characters express their opinions. It’s all absurd and Holly is having an existential breakdown watched intently by Arabella, still willful and unpleasant but imaginative and resourceful. It is possible that Cavalli is tapping into the tropes of childhood—running away, punishing parents, believing in the spiritual nonsense of past lives. And all the while, it’s laugh-out-loud hilarious as only something this crazy played straight can be. Continuity is often thrown out the window as Holly reacts crazily to the situations she finds herself in with the pre-pubescent monster on her heels. Add to this the very low key search for Arabella as though her absence is more of a blessing than a calamity. As it slowly, but inevitably, dawns on Holly that Arabella is not her former self but a rope with which to hang her, inertia sets in. 

The story is not nearly as interesting as the telling on screen. Cold, dispassionate, absurd, all the elements for a comedy are there. The father, self-absorbed, is a marvelous narcissistic role model for Arabella. Holly, delusional, is an easy mark looking for a direction, one that has always been before her eyes. And Arabella, frankly she’s unlikable without redeeming value; but she is cute. There are no heroes and I suppose that may be the point. But all in all, this is a very funny movie, all sound and fury signifying nothing but poking fun at “finding yourself.” Yes, they’re all lost but, in the end, no one is found and there are no just desserts, just a bit of creme brulee. 

Chris Pine is wonderful as Oreste, the very resigned father. Lucrezia Guglielmino as Arabella was quite a find. So natural is she in playing this manipulative bad seed that you are tempted to ascribe these qualities to the real child. And finally there is the fabulous Benedetta Porcoroli as the believably delusional Holly. So convincing is she, that you will find yourself shouting at the screen for her to wake up. What Cavalli has done so well, amongst lots of other things, is make us realize that there are elements of Holly, Arabella and even Oreste in all of us. How we tap into them is the trick. Will we be delusional or insightful? See the film and decide for yourself as you laugh at the outlandish antics of Holly and Arabella, a child without any, or at least very few, redeeming qualities.

In Italian with English subtitles.

Opening July 24 at the Laemmle Monica