This pitch-black, low-budget British comedy entertainingly revolves around a sleazy, self-serving MP who may or may not bear a passing resemblance to a certain recent prime minister. The MP’s name is Richard “Hardline” Hardy (Patrick Baladi), a politician so morally bankrupt that when he is kidnapped by a pair of bungling amateurs, he spots a once-in-a-life opportunity for cut-through with the British public. “Four million hits!” he says as his eyes light up seeing his kidnap video rack up views on YouTube.
Hardy’s kidnappers are out-of-work actor Maggie (Kelly Wenham) and her boyfriend Brian (Jack Parry-Jones), a taxi driver studying coding in his spare time. The frankly implausible story of how and why they kidnap Hardy while he’s up north on an opportunistic tour of the regions to visit “working people” (though in truth he seems to have contempt for anyone who doesn’t share his posh accent), is told in flashback. Meanwhile we watch the kidnap flounder when Hardy’s wife, sick of his affairs, refuses to pay up. With no ransom in sight, Maggie and Brian decide to let Hardy go. But he’s got other ideas: why not keep the kidnap up for another few days? What the heck, he’ll pay himself. The publicity is priceless.
There is a streak of pure cynicism in this clever set-up that makes you wonder if writer-director Dan Clark has been watching The Thick of It on repeat – as in Armando Iannucci’s sitcom, there isn’t a sympathetic character anywhere to be seen. Baladi goes all out as Hardy, three parts arrogance to two parts slime. That said, my enjoyment of the film was spoiled by a plot development that in the end, for me, made the film almost as unlikable as its characters.
• A Kind of Kidnapping is released on 13 July in UK cinemas, and on 24 July on digital platforms
