A bird in the box is worth two in the hand... or a good thriller for adults

Rating: 8/10 (2 February 2019)

Being a Sandra Bullock fan, I enjoyed this movie immensely but that's not say it didn't have its faults. Maybe the novel was filled out a bit more. But when a movie keeps you interested from start to finish, that's worth something.
The movie evolves around specific conditions the antagonist is creating, which acts as the plot device, but is never explained. Where did the antagonist come from? When will it leave? The movie is not a look at the longer-term answers to these questions. Though it does span 5 years, it focuses on one mother trying to survive under these threatening conditions with her two children, who she is trying to get to safety. That's it. It does not explore the villain. That seems to have frustrated some people who mistakenly think the movie is about the villain, instead of this one mother's personal journey and her character arc.
Her journey (without giving anything away) does have a beginning, middle and end, in that the question of "does she get her children to safety" is answered. That wasn't enough for some viewers and I get that, but that WAS the point of the movie and is the central question the plot was designed to answer. Not "who is the antagonist" ... in fact I don't remember a single character asking anything about the antagonist, ("where did it come from" or "what do you think it is") so that should have been a tip-off it would not be explored. And to be fair, that could be seen as one big hole as it's the first thing people would reasonably ask. Instead everyone was just focused on survival, but that worked for me.
The movie built great suspense, almost Hitchcockian, especially in certain scenes, and only lagged a bit in couple spots, but that changed quickly. It was also a bit long, but all those things are why I gave 8 stars vs 10.
Since the ending only answered the personal journey of the Mother and not the longer term questions, I can see how it disappointed some. But overall it was filmed well, acted well, kept my interest, and was a very different kind of movie.
If you're tired of car chases, shoot-em-ups and other overdone normal fare, you might just enjoy this mostly gripping movie.