Roger Erbert: The Kidnapping of Arabella Review
The liveliest gag of Carolina Cavalli’s sweet-natured yet increasingly serious “The Kidnapping of Arabella” arrives at its beginning. Unhappy that she has to endure a dull night amongst adults, the young, precocious Arabella (a wonderful Lucrezia Guglielmino) throws a mighty tantrum in order to not attend the celebration thrown in honor of her famous author dad, Orest D. After all, what kid wants to sit nicely at a table for several hours and get served boring food when they can go to Taco King, Arabella’s favorite restaurant? Defeated when her cries go nowhere, young Arabella joins her father begrudgingly. But that doesn’t stop her from hackling the event with frequent outbursts, hilariously yelling things like “Jonathan Franzen” and “Taco King” at random. The former is the author the cheeky kid knows her dad is most jealous of, a running joke that’s successful enough throughout the film to give us a few decent chuckles. The latter, well, where Arabella would rather be.