Ransom Review by Beth Ann Griese

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Starring	Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise, Delroy Lindo, Brawley Nolte
Director	Ron Howard
Year	1996
What it's worth		Full price (See this movie at whatever cost!)

Ron Howard, the director, does an excellent job of grabbing the horrible shock and pain of hearing a stranger's voice demanding money in return for the life of your child. Conveying emotion has always been one of Howard's strengths, but it's tended to fall into heavy-handedness in some of his movies. This time, though, he steers clear of the overwrought or forced feelings, and manages instead to deal in raw reactions. That's the heart and soul of Ransom; if this happened to you, how would you react?

The reaction, for the most part, is obsession, even among the kidnappers. The kidnappers, of course, are obsessed with getting their money and sticking it to the rich guys. Tom Mullen, his wife, and the FBI agent assigned to them (Lonnie Hawkins, played by Delroy Lindo), are obsessed with getting the child back in one piece, no matter the cost. The problem is, Mullen and Hawkins have different ideas about the best way to accomplish their goal.

We've already seen in the previews some of the lengths Tom Mullen reaches to try to get his son back; he publicly offers the ransom money as a reward for the kidnapper's head. In its simplest terms, the movie's about Tom, and whether his ideas about how to deal with the kidnapping are right, and whether he'll succeed. But Agent Hawkins, in a subtler role, is Tom's foil. He's also obsessed, but has no power to carry out what he thinks will be the best plan, so he has to play what games he can with Tom and his wife to convince them that his plans are for the best.

And caught in between is the weakest role in the movie, Russo's Kate Mullen. This was my largest complaint with the movie; through it all, Kate doesn't do much more than react as her husband goes to amazing dangers and risks to retrieve their boy. This is not a step forward for women's lib. She's no damsel-in-distress, but there were times I really wished she would've called Tom to the carpet for dealing on his own with a situation that so intimately involved the both of them.

Ransom is an excellent, chair-gripping tale that deals smartly with a tender and touchy subject. It'll leave you winded by its end. I had a very hard time deciding whether to give this movie a "full price" or a "matinee" ranking, but maybe because we're coming off the fall lull and it's a been a while since a really fine movie came to the screen, or maybe just because I'm in a good mood, I gave it the higher rank. It's an excellent way to spend a couple of hours in the theater.

PS. If you are especially sensitive to the subject of child kidnapping, or if you have a child with you when you go to the theater, I'd advise thinking twice about going in. The movie is not terribly graphic, and it's worst violence is between adults, not the child. But the emotions involved with dealing with the loss and potential loss of a son have so much impact that they left me breathless more than once in the film. It may be tough to take if you have special problems with this subject, and it may be wiser to wait until the film comes to the small screen.

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