With but limited knowledge that the movie was good, featured Liam Neeson, and involved a girl being kidnapped, I went in expecting a movie similar to Taken. Something more actiony than the slow, tense psychological thriller I watched unfold me on the big screen. Not that I mind one bit, because the film is amazing and captivating from start to finish. Everyone featured does an amazing job, from Neeson as the often-brooding and flawed, but well-meaning Scudder to David Harbour and Adam David Thompson's chilling psychopaths.
What I especially love is the puzzle-like nature of the story. The more we learn, the easier it is to see how everything fits together. And the movie never feels the need to stretch out or pad the mystery part of the plot, instead electing for the final 30-ish minutes to be a tense standoff, the story evolving from just pursuing insane criminals to bring them to justice to a battle of wills with an innocent girl's life on the line.
I really can't say it enough. See this film if you love gritty crime dramas or suspenseful thrillers or mysteries or even just films with some really witty dialogue. This film handles exposition incredibly well. Offhand comments often turn out to be something deeper, and you can really believe that people would say it in real life. Brian "Astro" Bradly's performance as TJ, a homeless kid is probably the easiest example of this, Astro having some very smart to things to say but not just feeling like a kid saying an adult's dialogue. His talk about sickle-cell anemia or gushing about old noir detectives comes out the way I figure a kid forced to grow up too soon would say it.
One thing that's not necessarily a problem with the film, but is nevertheless peculiar is the date the movie's set in. The original novelization was written in 1992, but the movie is set in 1999 for some reason. Maybe it's to give it a more concise date for people to associate with through the {=Y2K=} imagery. I don't really know though. But that's just a nitpick that doesn't detract from just how great this film is.
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With but limited knowledge that the movie was good, featured Liam Neeson, and involved a girl being kidnapped, I went in expecting a movie similar to Taken. Something more actiony than the slow, tense psychological thriller I watched unfold me on the big screen. Not that I mind one bit, because the film is amazing and captivating from start to finish. Everyone featured does an amazing job, from Neeson as the often-brooding and flawed, but well-meaning Scudder to David Harbour and Adam David Thompson's chilling psychopaths.
What I especially love is the puzzle-like nature of the story. The more we learn, the easier it is to see how everything fits together. And the movie never feels the need to stretch out or pad the mystery part of the plot, instead electing for the final 30-ish minutes to be a tense standoff, the story evolving from just pursuing insane criminals to bring them to justice to a battle of wills with an innocent girl's life on the line.
I really can't say it enough. See this film if you love gritty crime dramas or suspenseful thrillers or mysteries or even just films with some really witty dialogue. This film handles exposition incredibly well. Offhand comments often turn out to be something deeper, and you can really believe that people would say it in real life. Brian "Astro" Bradly's performance as TJ, a homeless kid is probably the easiest example of this, Astro having some very smart to things to say but not just feeling like a kid saying an adult's dialogue. His talk about sickle-cell anemia or gushing about old noir detectives comes out the way I figure a kid forced to grow up too soon would say it.
One thing that's not necessarily a problem with the film, but is nevertheless peculiar is the date the movie's set in. The original novelization was written in 1992, but the movie is set in 1999 for some reason. Maybe it's to give it a more concise date for people to associate with through the {=Y2K=} imagery. I don't really know though. But that's just a nitpick that doesn't detract from just how great this film is.