It took two box office flops to force Alejandro Amenábar to retreat to his Spanish roots and fall into the category of “once brilliant, now far from his peak.” The Captive (El Cautivo), made on a budget of over 20 million euros, was meant as his comeback, a return to the big canvas filmmaking he attempted with Agora, but this time rooted in Spain with no A list international stars, leaving him more comfortable with the endeavor and hopefully better positioned to reach the quality of his earlier work.
At times he succeeds. The film dramatizes a chapter in the life of Miguel de Cervantes, the future writer of Don Quixote, and it looks and feels grand, like a biblical epic of yesteryear. Yet despite its lavish costumes, respectable score, and expansive sets, its emotional connection remains distant. Not as much as in his previous attempt at an epic, but still enough to make it easier to admire than to fully immerse in emotionally.
Set in Algiers in 1575, the story speculates about a period in Cervantes’ life that has not been recorded in detail. The facts are that Cervantes was wounded in his left arm, captured after naval action, sold into slavery, and attempted to escape multiple times during his five years as a captive. Amenábar, who also wrote the film, fills in the blanks by having Cervantes entertain his fellow slaves with storytelling, which catches the attention of his captor Hasan, the Bajá of Algiers. Hasan begins to treat him better to hear his tales, and a psychological and sexual tension develops between them.
This “what if” scenario gives Amenábar the chance to explore desire, repression, and identity in a hostile world at a time when society was far less accepting of homosexuality. There are also attempts to tie these themes to the present, most clearly in the subplot of a character rejecting his son’s queer lifestyle.
The problem is that the film stays in respectable but safe territory for most of its duration, and given its epic length of almost two hours and twenty minutes it eventually grows tiresome. In a world after Game of Thrones, such a timid and cautious portrayal of sexual dynamics feels old fashioned. The passion and attraction between the two leads never truly convinces. Escape attempts and other moments that should have been thrilling are treated with too grounded and serious a tone, preventing the film from ever fully engaging.
Where The Captive succeeds is in its reconstruction of the period and in the way it ties Cervantes’ hardships to his future writing. Amenábar’s approach of linking Don Quixote to Cervantes’ real experiences creates parallels that are often more compelling than the central drama, to the point that the stories within the story become the film’s most interesting layer.
As it stands, The Captive needed either more urgency or more passion to truly immerse. It carries the weight of importance but remains too contemplative and restrained to fully connect on an emotional level.
This is part of Reviews On Reels TIFF 2025 Coverage. Due to the hectic rhythm of a film festival, it may be tweaked in the future.
Still courtesy of TIFF.