stop, baby, stop with the _____, baby, _____ summary lines ;)

Rating: 7/10 (15 August 2012)

I enjoyed this movie a lot. Great acting, well crafted dialog, etc, etc... I think where it doesn't hold up as well is in the believability of the end. The thing is that by the time you get to the end you are already emotionally engaged in the characters and events and so the plot twist is easier to swallow. However, when you look at the facts on paper or even just stop to think about the end a little critically the believability falls apart. Police chief risks his career, free life, and everything else to try and save a girl from a bad home situation by adopting her via kidnapping. I wish people's hearts were this big in real life but they aren't (and police chiefs aren't this dumb to think that they can abduct a girl, plaster her face over the news, and their police friends will come over to visit not ask any questions, and they can just enroll the girl in school under a new name without anyone noticing). Of course, it raises an interesting question of 'what the right thing to do' is when you see a child in a bad situation but its not a real world option being chosen so it pretty much disqualifies itself from asking the question in anything other than a utopian fantasy land. Maybe it sounds like I'm hating on this movie. I'm not. I wouldn't change the ending plot twist. It was still fun to watch with it. However, I'm not going to give it 10 stars either I think 8/10 is fair considering it succeeds on many fronts and surpassed my expectations. A 3 or 3.5 star film. Recommended!