There is a really interesting movie lurking in here - an examination on the effect of violence on young children in the vein of Lord of the Flies - but unfortunately these issues are only skirted over and for the most part this is a fairly run of the mill adventure tale.
It is badly hurt by a dreadful performance from Rachel Ward in the lead. It's a gift role - you get to be brave, tough, beautiful, conflicted, smart, go on a real emotional journey... but it is completely beyond her abilities. She just has this dead flat delivery and grating accent. She is pretty and does go for a swim in her underwear, but that's very little compensation.
The kids come off better and kudos to the filmmakers and actors for enabling them to have some personality despite their large number: they include Beth Buchanan, Rebecca Rigg, and Asher Keddie! They all seem very believable, constantly complaining and wanting to go to the toilet, with the elder boys perving on Ward, and getting bloodthirsty. Towards the end it gets kind of complex with Ward whipping the kids up into a violent frenzy and the kids going berko on the kidnappers, then keeping silent about it... but like I say that feels undercooked. (The script was written by Everett de Roche whose scripts often felt as though they needed another draft.)
It's almost as though the finale of this needed to be the second act, with an extra third act showing the impact of the violence - you could still have a kidnapper at large if you like to keep the suspense. It could have enabled the filmmakers to get into the characters of the kidnappers a bit more too, who are just giggling, loud thugs, whose faces we rarely see. (NB If I'm not mistaken there were four kidnappers but we see only two get killed.)
Arch Nicholson wasn't the world's best director - I know he died young, which is tragic, but it's true. This offers opportunities for suspense and action galore and he only does a mediocre job.
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