Tracie Guzzio

I was surprised that critics knocked the film. I have never left a review, but after reading some pretty harsh ones, I felt compelled to write an excellent review. If you are coming to the film hoping to find another version of “Taken,” this is not the film for you. This is tonally a completely different experience — thankfully. This is a psychological portrait of a divorced couple, guilty of their own mistakes as parents, forced to feel that guilt deeply and acutely, when their son is kidnapped or lost. This isn’t a action movie. This is an experience of emotional pain and grief that unbalances these two characters — particularly the absent father — as they are forced to find their son. The plot of the whodunit is not as important or as interesting as what this is doing to them. McAvoy and Foy are achingly human and flawed. As a parent, I knew precisely what every tear, grimace and angry outburst felt like. They were brilliant. And the cinematography emphasized the isolation and dread they felt searching for their son in the immensity of a world clearly hostile to their quest and their innocent boy. Beautifully shot and scored, this is not a film, and these are not performances, I will soon forget. The plot may be weak or unsurprising, but everything else will haunt me.

Scary, unsettling, and completely engrossing. Rebecca Hall is mesmerizing.