Between the Pages

When troubled rich girl Emily (Alicia Silverstone) fakes her own kidnapping to get her father’s attention, she ends up getting more than she bargained for!  Her plan is that her father will pay a ransom and she will then be found safe and well in the trunk of her car.  However, car thief Vincent (Benicio Del Toro) is unaware of all of this when he steals the car, with Emily in it!  When he discovers that he has not only stolen a car, but has also unwittingly stolen a person, he just wants to get Emily away from him, before he winds up getting blamed for the kidnapping which she faked in the first place.  Initially he and Emily can’t stand each other, but as they spend more time together, they grow to respect each other and find an understand that neither of them has been able to find anywhere else.  Meantime however, Emily’s Uncle Ray (Christopher Walken), is on their tail…

I really enjoyed this movie.  Alicia Silverstone is as cute as a button in the part of the feisty Emily, and Christopher Walken gives a great performance, as always.  But this movie really belongs to Benicio Del Toro.  Now I might be slightly biased, because I think Benicio is more delicious than a bar of Green and Black’s chocolate wrapped in Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, but there’s no denying that he is perfect for the role of Vincent, who may be a car thief, but who  has an air of naivety, and – car theft aside – only wants to do the right thing.  I’ve always thought that he is a great actor, who can convey an emotion with just a slight change in expression – he also possesses great comic timing.

This is the perfect kind of movie to relax with, and one I can definitely see myself watching again sometime in the future.

Year of release: 1997

Director: Marco Brambilla

Writers: Max D. Adams, Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais

Main cast: Benicio el Toro, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken