JINGLE BELLS, BATMAN SMELLS

Rating: 6/10 (14 May 2018)

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) hunts deer the first day of hunting season. In Pennsylvania, that is Thanksgiving. His family walks over to the Grovers to celebrate the Holiday. While there, Franklin Grover (Terrence Howard) decides to entertain with his trumpet and the next thing you know their young daughters are missing. The son recalls a van nearby that the girls wanted to play on. The police (Jake Gyllenhaal) quickly get the van and the driver (Paul Dano), but it is clean and the driver "has the mind of a ten year old." To the dismay of Keller, the police let him go with the expected vigilante results by Keller.
As it turns out the tale is slightly more twisted than on the surface.
I will say the acting is good, but we have seen so many films of this genre they clearly ran out of catchy names and simply called this one "Prisoners" allowing the viewer to make everyone a prisoner either physically or of the mind. Yawn. I really liked the "Dirty Harry" version of this genre. Go ahead. Compare the dialog. Make my day. It took both Jackman and Gyllenhaal together to do what Eastwood did better by himself.
I am not saying this is a bad film, by no means. It is certainly worthy of a rental, especially if you like to see parents lament over their missing child. I just can't see shelling out a lot of green for a film that will remembered as a trivia question.
Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.