Proof Of Life

Rating: 3/4 (Good watch)

Proof Of Life is a movie about the kidnap of Peter, an engineer who is building an oil company funded dam in Tecala (a fictional South American country). His marriage was almost on the edge with his wife (Meg Ryan) when he is nabbed. The rebel group in the country who have kidnapped him want to extract ransom from his company. So, in comes K&R negotiator (Russell Crowe) who starts working on the case. Even though the oil company expresses it’s inability to support the expenses (it has slipped into insolvency), Crowe later takes up the case on a personal basis. He and Meg start to communicate with the kidnappers and try to fix a ransom amount. Meanwhile, Peter endures harsh conditions in his kidnappers’ camp in a remote mountain where the rebels grow cocaine for their drug business. Crowe has started to fall in love with Meg, when the hostage situation goes bad and he decides to strike the rebel camp and rescue Peter.

During the movie release time, I remember that the (supposed) romance between Crowe and Meg overshadowed the movie itself. The movie gets a little boring by the middle. But, the pace picks up to the end. The commando action in the mountains is very cool. Crowe continues to be just too good. Meg is just lost in between all this crisis without her candy floss romance role, wrong casting choice. I continue to love any movie with good scenes of the country it is filmed in. This movie does that with South America. On the whole, the movie is just okay fare. But, not to be missed are the fabulous aerial shots of a South American city and the mountains at the end (when the credits start rolling) with a Van Morrison solo playing in the background. It is awesome!