Ryan Reynolds booed at Cannes

May 16 was supposed to be a great day for Ryan Reynolds.

The actor was at the Cannes Film Festival ready to debut his new movie, "The Captive," with wife Blake Lively by his side. If all went according to plan, he and his beaming bride could exit the theater with critics spreading word of Reynolds' comeback.

The only problem? It doesn't sound like anything went according to plan.

According to The Wrap, Reynolds' new thriller "The Captive" was not only met with boos at the film festival, but it deserved them, too.

Directed by Atom Egoyan, "The Captive" tells the story of the aftermath of a young woman's disappearance as her loved ones come to the realization that she may still be alive. Reynolds plays the missing girl's father in a cast that includes "Felicity" actor Scott Speedman, Rosario Dawson and "The Killing's" Mireille Enos.

The plot sounds interesting enough, but The Wrap says the movie could end its Cannes run as the fest's first film "to be greeted with outright boos."

"The abuse wasn't unanimous at the Friday morning press screening of the overheated child-abduction thriller," the entertainment website says, "but the boos were at least as loud as the applause for a film that at its best will be divisive. ... 'The Captive' is yet another misfire.'"

Egoyan had told The Hollywood Reporter before the screening that he expected "The Captive" to "redefine Ryan's career" thanks to his "stunning ... nuanced, dramatic portrayal of a man who has been tortured for eight years and remains hopeful."

And yet, as New York Magazine's Kyle Buchanan notes, what ended up happening is very different, with "The Captive's" closing moments drawing "the sort of boos and hisses that had somehow eluded even the critically reviled 'Grace of Monaco.'"

There's been speculation that Reynolds was absent from the movie's premiere afterparty because of the harsh reaction, but if that's true, he can at least rest in the knowledge that NYMag's critic, at least, thinks he just needs better material.