Dark, engaging thriller - a bit too convenient for mystery

Rating: Null/10 (15 December 2017)

It was an entertaining thriller - no lighthearted entertainment of course. The quality of the movie making was great, and it had very tense moments. But was it a masterpiece? I would say the script often felt a bit too convenient for that, i.e. clues are found almost randomly and key characters only mumble a few words to the right recipients while no one around can hear it.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Other users have written about the "thought-provoking moral ambiguity". Some of the actors portray their despair very convincingly (most of the time Hugh Jackman) and you can understand they are desperate to do anything. Jackman's character turns into a kidnapper himself to save his daughter from the very same thing. What he does isn't morally ambiguous at all, he straight turns into a psychopath. Maybe the black parents' behavior of inaction counts as riding a fine moral line.
I expected the movie would do more with that. We are shown a scene when Jackman starts praying "Our Father" and struggles at the line "forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us". The only thing that came close to a conclusive moment is that his daughter's abductor was also formerly religious, then lost faith. The payoff fell a bit flat, as did the ending scene.