Director Randall Miller, along with his wife Jody Savin wrote the winding and twisted take on a story of kidnapping and redemption. Originally released at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2007, it was released to a wider audience in December 2008 and now is out on DVD. All of the filming locations were contained in the Southern California area.
Resident pampas chemist Eli Michaelson (Alan Rickman) is being awarded the Nobel Prize. His son Barkley (Bryan Greenburg) is considered a failure and out cast by his father. Eli’s wife Sarah (Mary Steenburgen) is a forensic psychologist for the police department. When Barkley doesn’t show for the presentation of his father’s esteemed award, Sarah becomes worried and the trip to accept the Nobel Prize comes to a screeching halt as they learn of their sons kidnapping. What seems to be a simple exchange of money for their son turns into a whole story within the story. Just as you think this is another predictable movie, the story just throws another twist.
The extras section has a few selections that are relevant to the story. There is a Director Commentary, Deleted scenes, which should have been added to make the suspense level rise a bit more, a featurette on the film and a few trailers for some other films.
There was a bit of a slow start to the film, and it was a little hard to get into some of the character development, but once the real drama and suspense start, I was attached to every minute. I found that the huge cast of great actors really did justice to the story but didn’t really focus on just one of them like the typical Hollywood movies do. I found that Alan Rickman is a genius when it comes to playing the guy everyone loves to hate and Danny Devito had a small role but was more than lovable in his character. Avery well rounded movie, awesome cast and great story. I was very surprised I didn’t hear of this film earlier.
Reviewed by Michael Albaugh
