Disappointing

Rating: Null/10 (14 November 2003)

Yes, this was disappointing in a few ways. The acting was faultless, I have no problem with people the calibre of Bacon, Robbins and Penn acting their socks off (although Penn tends to overact slightly, and reminds me of Pacino in that respect).
But there were many aspects which seemed pointless to me. The whole thing about Bacon's wife phoning him and saying nothing. What was that all about ? It led nowhere, and added nothing to the story, or Bacon's character. I also thought Fishburne's dialogue was cliche-ridden and predictable.

And the early shot of the abductor's hand when Robbins' child character is taken into the car : a close-up of the gold ring on his finger which showed a cross. This was lingered on, as though it would be important at some later point in the movie. It wasn't.
The ending was completely irrelevant - the parade scene. Complete waste of time, and it came after the natural end to the movie had come and gone. I had the feeling the movie was never going to end.
***SPOILER***
I had the odd feeling afterwards that the morality of the film was very dubious : Robbins' character was, after all, guilty of murder, and the movie seemed to suggest that he would have got away with it. He killed a paedophile, but he still committed murder nonetheless. The movie left a disctint impression that Penn's character was going to get away with what he'd done, and that Bacon's character didn't really have a problem with that.