Hugh Jackman is an average joe with a wife and kids and stuff. He is mates with Terence Howard whose genitals also work pretty well. They have thanksgiving together and drink and have all sorts of fun until their two little girls go missing. They phone the rozzers who put Jake Gyllenhaal on the case and he starts running around blinking and getting frustrated at Hugh in particular. Thus begins a mystery search for the naughty bastard/bastardette who napped the kids.
On paper this reads as a solid, dependable and enjoyable who dunnit thriller that doesn't really threaten either extreme of the critical spectrum. This then puts the onus on the cast to elevate the film above the mundane, good thing Jake and Hugh were free then. Jake Gyllenhaal continues to make himself comfortable on my favourite actors list and pulls off a great performance as a slightly overworked, unhinged cop. Hugh also puts in a very good performance and keeps reminding us that he is a very competent actor. Thankfully the quality doesn't stop with the support cast, namely Paul Dano as the suspect with let's just say learning difficulties. Moving on from the cast the film touches on morality and how this can bend and break under extreme pressures. This adds something a little extra to the bog standard crime thriller format and pulls it off very well. Unfortunately the film is not without flaws but they are few in number. There are a handful of small holes through which the plot occasionally falls and it doesn't go completely unnoticed and does throw the tension off every now and again. The other big flaw is the big reveal when you find out who has taken the girls and it's a shame that when you find out you have already pretty much worked it out. That being said the film keeps the tension and frankly hard to watch scenes ramped up enough that in the end I forgave it. Great stuff.
Verdict: 4/5
