Such is the power of a good story, that thriller master Ed McBain’s 1959 novel King’s Ransom was adapted by the great Japanese filmmaker Akira Kusosawa as the masterpiece High and Low (1963), an unauthorized Hindi remake, Inkaar (1977), back to Hollywood as Highest2Lowest (2025); now Ben Affleck picked it to direct and star in for the Netflix film, Animals, so far the weakest iteration in the chain.
Written by Connor O. McIntyre, Billy Ray and Affleck, the plot is set in LA, where Mark Kimball (Affleck) is standing for the mayoral election as an independent candidate. This means, he has to plough in his own money, and on the urging of his friend and manager, Sam (Steven Yeun) puts in the last of his savings into the campaign. The Spanish-speaking Mark is in a constituency with a majority of Hispanic voters, and he has to do everything he can to appeal to them to support him over his Latina opponent.
His wife Abigail (Kerry Washington), is a psychologist, who is having an affair; their son Denny (Christopher Woodley) is a spirited child friendly with Hector (Jacob Estrada), the son of their Mexican housekeeper Cecilia (Adriana Paz). She wants the Kimballs to help her boyfriend Ramon (Luis Gerardo Mendez) get legal status in the US, and their refusal causes some strain in the household.
The two boys, accompanied by Cecilia, go to a Halloween fair, dressed in identical costumes. The Kimballs get a call saying that their son has been kidnapped and the ransom is seven million dollars, which Mark literally does not have, after signing away all his money for the election fund.
Abigail is understandably incensed that Mark has put the family in dire straits. Sam suggests summoning a notorious fixer, who will arrange for the ransom for a huge fee, and also help negotiate with the kidnappers. And enters the scene-stealing star of the film, Dayle (Gillian Anderson), dressed in white, sharp, confident and ruthless. Then Denny returns, and it turns out that it was Hector who was mistakenly abducted. The ransom demand remains the same, since the kidnappers know that refusal to pay would, in effect, ensure Mark’s defeat in the elections.
This opportunism on the part of Mark and Sam dilutes the ethical and moral dilemma of the story. Mark will pay, not because he cares about the employee’s child, but because not paying will hurt him more. Still, Affleck manages a slick drama about class privilege and ambition, even though the lines are bombastic and the characters shout and overact—Affleck most of all. Anderson’s cool, deadpan Dayle is a welcome contrast to all the melodrama around her. The subplot of Abigail’s affair does nothing but add a few minutes to the runtime, and give the film an unintentionally comic scene in the bedroom.
That time could have been better spent on the kidnappers, whose motive is hinted at quickly in the beginning, but they remain unknown, shadowy men.
Affleck has directed better films before, like Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and the Oscar-winning Argo, so Animals is a bit of a comedown—watchable, but also disappointing, because of the expectations from him, and the source material that was hard to mess up.
Animals
Directed by Ben Affleck
Cast: Ben Affleck, Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun, Gillian Anderson, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Adriana Paz
On Netflix