American Hostage is an interesting, perfectly acted look at a real-life story that, at times, stretches the premise a bit thin but never ends up being dull. Adapted from the 2022 scripted podcast and inspired by true events, the show follows a 62-hour hostage crisis that ensues after Tony Kiritsis (Giovanni Ribisi) straps a shotgun with a dead-man’s trigger to mortgage broker Dick Hall (Kristoffer Polaha).
It’s an intriguing set of events, not because of the kidnapping itself, but because of how it involves journalism and the way the story of what happened and how that story is being told are balanced. Kiritsis demands a live, on-air interview with Fred Heckman (Jon Hamm), the news director at local radio station WIBC, and then we’re off to the races, following this tale through Heckman’s attempt to understand Kiritsis.
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The dynamics of how this story gets underway are very engaging, particularly because in some ways 1977 feels like it wasn’t that long ago, but when we watch something like this, we realize it’s been almost 50 years. The world has changed a lot. American Hostage milks this for all it can, with tremendous production design and a lot of emphasis put on the little details that audiences today probably don’t know.
But at the heart of it, when American Hostage works, and it stars very, very strong, it’s all thanks to amazing performances by Jon Hamm and Giovanni Ribisi. The dichotomy between their characters works very well, with Hamm delivering a grounded, calm performance while Ribisi imbues his character with the kind of chaotic vulnerability that a lesser actor would not have been able to pull off.
The problem, of course, is that eight episodes feel like way too many for this story. The first two hours are non-stop, and yet inevitably, the show has to slow down because there just isn’t that much to tell, and we have eight episodes. That works to the show’s detriment both in pacing and messaging, because as impactful as the performances are and as current as the message feels, it’s way too diluted to have the impact the show would want it to have.
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A shorter miniseries, or even a movie, would have served the story better and allowed the terrific performances to shine. As it is, American Hostage starts out strong, loses steam, and though it still manages to close off pretty well, there are at least three episodes in the middle where it feels like not that much is happening.
Despite this, there’s an interesting message here, one that hits harder in the age of 24-hour news cycles. We’ve all lived through plenty of catastrophes that feel real to us because we were able to follow them live, minute by minute. Back in the 70s, that wasn’t as common. American Hostage tries to get to the bottom of why there’s an appetite for these kinds of stories and what it says about us that there is.
Whether it actually arrives at an answer is for you to decide. We can’t fault the show for trying, even if we can fault it for taking too long to get to where it wants to go.
American Hostage screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.
