Wow! One of the best of the year!

Rating: 9/10 (20 September 2013)

The review: Wow. Difficult to unpack such an emotionally riveting, suspenseful movie that has you on the edge of your seat most of the time. The fall movie season is officially underway, and couldn't be more welcome. After a disappointing summer movie season for the most part, it is easy to tell based on the previews alone before the film that the next few months will bring no lack of great movies. Okay, back to this one. I have been looking forward to this one for a while. Not that I enjoy the situation the main characters will be put into, probably more because it is at times thought provoking to think about what would you do if you were put into a situation, or a revenge or vigilante situation in which you felt the law failed you.
The previews for this movie did a great job, because ¾ through this movie, I still had no idea what was going to happen or who the abductor of the children was. The director does such a great job with building the mystery and the revelations and foreshadowing that it's just not possible to figure it out. There are clues of course but to figure the whole puzzle out, well, it's pretty impossible, and that's part of the reason this movie is so great. It is definitely emotionally taxing. My wife did not want to watch the movie, and with good reason. In the film "Ransom" Mel Gibson is on a manhunt for his child's kidnappers and is in communication with them. The audience also gets glimpses of the child occasionally and knows that while not in an ideal situation, he is okay. In this movie, the audience does not get many revelations. The children are gone, and that's all we know. We don't know how, who, why, or where. It's difficult to explain much more without giving anything way, and I'm not going to do that. While this movie is NOT a feel good movie or a pick me up, it is superb, and for the most part, with the emotional trip.