''Kidnapping Freddy Heineken'' (U.S. title ''Kidnapping Mr. Heineken'') is a 2015 British-Dutch
crime drama
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...
film directed by
Daniel Alfredson
Hans Daniel Björn Alfredson (born 23 May 1959 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Sweden, Swedish film director who is best known for directing film versions of two parts of the ''Millennium Trilogy'': ''The Girl Who Played with Fire (film), The Girl ...
based on the 1983
kidnapping of Freddy Heineken
Freddy Heineken, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of the brewing company Heineken International and one of the richest people in the Netherlands, and his driver Ab Doderer, were kidnapped on 9 November 1983 in Amsterdam. They were r ...
. The screenplay, based on the 1987 book by
Peter R. de Vries, was written by William Brookfield. The role of
Freddy Heineken is played by
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, director, and producer. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received many accolad ...
, with
Sam Worthington
Samuel Henry John Worthington (born 2 August 1976) is an Australian actor. He is best known for playing Jake Sully in ''Avatar'' and its sequel, ''Avatar: The Way of Water''; Marcus Wright in ''Terminator Salvation'', and Perseus in '' Clash o ...
as
Willem Holleeder,
Jim Sturgess
James Anthony Sturgess''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 16 May 1978) is an English actor and singer-songwriter. His first major role was as Jude in the musical romance drama film ''Acro ...
as
Cor van Hout,
Ryan Kwanten as Jan Boellaard, Thomas Cocquerel as
Martin Erkamps
Freddy Heineken, chairman of the board of directors and Chief executive officer, CEO of the brewing company Heineken International and one of the richest people in the Netherlands, and his driver Ab Doderer, were kidnapped on 9 November 1983 in A ...
and Mark van Eeuwen as
Frans Meijer.
Plot
The film takes place in 1983, primarily in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
, and centres on a group of five Dutch friends:
Willem Holleeder,
Cor van Hout, Jan Boellard, Martin Erkamps and
Frans Meijer. Looking for easy money, they decide to kidnap the
Heineken
Heineken Lager Beer ( nl, Heineken Pilsener), or simply Heineken () is a pale lager beer with 5% alcohol by volume produced by the Dutch brewing company Heineken N.V. Heineken beer is sold in a green bottle with a red star.
History
On 15 Feb ...
owner and tycoon
Freddy Heineken to achieve a very high
ransom. Although capturing Heineken and his driver Ab Doderer successfully, the group eventually face difficulties due to a lack of experience in crime. They fail to negotiate with the police, and Cor feels it is his duty to take care of his pregnant wife, Sonja. After Heineken is finally released by the police, Willem and Cor flee to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, where they plan to remain hidden. However, Cor experiences strong emotions to telephone Sonja, a dangerous action that could easily reveal their location to the police tracing. He is initially reluctant and has arguments with Willem, but ultimately gives in to his feelings and calls Sonja, resulting in Cor and Willem being arrested by the French police when leaving their apartment. According to the final headline, Freddy Heineken died in 2003; he actually died in 2002.
Cast
*
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, director, and producer. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received many accolad ...
as
Freddy Heineken
*
Sam Worthington
Samuel Henry John Worthington (born 2 August 1976) is an Australian actor. He is best known for playing Jake Sully in ''Avatar'' and its sequel, ''Avatar: The Way of Water''; Marcus Wright in ''Terminator Salvation'', and Perseus in '' Clash o ...
as
Willem Holleeder
*
Jim Sturgess
James Anthony Sturgess''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 16 May 1978) is an English actor and singer-songwriter. His first major role was as Jude in the musical romance drama film ''Acro ...
as
Cor van Hout
*
Ryan Kwanten as Jan Boellard
*
Jemima West as Sonja Holleeder
*
Thomas Cocquerel
Thomas Michel Cocquerel (born 5 September 1989) is an Australian actor. On television, he is known for his role as Tom Raikes in Julian Fellowes' HBO Max series ''The Gilded Age'' (2022). His films include '' OtherLife'' (2017), '' Billionaire B ...
as
Martin Erkamps
Freddy Heineken, chairman of the board of directors and Chief executive officer, CEO of the brewing company Heineken International and one of the richest people in the Netherlands, and his driver Ab Doderer, were kidnapped on 9 November 1983 in A ...
*
Mark van Eeuwen
Mark van Eeuwen (born 23 July 1976) is a Dutch actor. He is known for his role as Jack van Houten in the long-running soap opera ''Goede tijden, slechte tijden''.
Career
He played the role of criminal Frans Meijer in the 2015 film ''Kidnappi ...
as
Frans Meijer
*
David Dencik
Karl David Sebastian Dencik (born 31 October 1974) is a Danish-Swedish actor. He has acted in both Swedish and Danish films, and has also had major roles in English-language films and series including ''Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' (2011), ''The G ...
as Ab Doderer
*
Billy Slaughter
William H. Slaughter is an American film and television actor, best known for his roles in '' The Campaign'' and ''Focus''. In his free time he works with students that want to become actors and actresses at Launch Model And Talent in Metairie, ...
as Junior Officer
*
Eric Godon
Eric Godon (born 7 February 1959) is a Belgian character actor, director and writer. Recognisable by his burly appearance and deep voice, he is perhaps best known in English language circles, for his roles in ''In Bruges'', and '' The Missing'' ...
as The cop
Production
Filming began in Belgium in October 2013. Most of the outside action scenes were filmed on location in Amsterdam.
Reception
''Kidnapping Mr. Heineken'' received generally unfavourable reviews from critics. The film has a 33/100 score at
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
and a 19% score at
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
.
The ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' commented, "Despite its true-events pedigree, ''Kidnapping Mr. Heineken'' is woefully captive to B-movie crime saga tropes."
''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote, "About as appealing as day-old beer littered with cigarette butts, the abysmal caper drama ''Kidnapping Mr. Heineken'' is one of those international co-productions produced for all the right tax-credit reasons and none of the right artistic ones."
Frank Scheck of ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...
'' wrote, "By the time the relatively brief but seemingly interminable proceedings reach their conclusion, viewers may feel like they've been held hostage themselves." Conversely,
Rex Reed
Rex Taylor Reed (born October 2, 1938) is an American film critic, occasional actor, and television host. He writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for '' The New York Observer''.
Early life
Reed was born on October 2, 1938, in Fort Wo ...
of ''
The New York Observer
''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...
'' gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, and commented, "Anthony Hopkins plays the king of the hops, and he is excellent. So is the rest of the movie, a sober, no-frills account about the highest ransom ever collected up to that time—$10 million and counting."
References
External links
*
*
{{Daniel Alfredson
2015 films
2015 crime drama films
British crime drama films
Dutch crime drama films
Crime films based on actual events
English-language Dutch films
Films directed by Daniel Alfredson
Films set in the Netherlands
Films set in Amsterdam
Films shot in Amsterdam
Films about hostage takings
Films set in 1983
Films scored by Lucas Vidal
Films based on non-fiction books
Films based on works by Dutch writers
2010s English-language films
2010s British films