Great Film: Ransom
Mixed results
After the terrific APOLLO 13, I thought Ron Howard was ready to move on to
even bigger things, Mel Gibson is good when he's given the chance to act,
Richard Price is one of my favorite writers, Lili Taylor is one of my
favorite actresses, and the trailer really rocked, so I was primed to see
this. But it's somewhat disappointing. The filmmakers try to make a flawed
hero, and Gibson certainly is that, not afraid to make his character
unlikable, and we even get the psychology of a man used to having his way
not having his way, and how he reacts to that. And most of the rest of the
cast is good(with one exception I'll get to in a moment). As a fan of
Taylor, I was especially pleased at how she was used. While she doesn't
have a lot of dialogue, she gets to develop her character in a way her
fellow villains don't because Howard has her on camera a lot, and she
expresses a lot with her face.
But the other villains aren't well-developed. The one wrong performance(not
bad, wrong) is by Gary Sinise; he tries, but he's just not convincing here,
mostly sounding forced. And the last 15 minutes are melodramatic and
unconvincing. The elements were all there, but it doesn't
deliver.
Cast
- Agent Lonnie Hawkins played by Delroy Lindo
- Wallace played by Paul Guilfoyle
- Cubby Barnes played by Donnie Wahlberg
- Tom Mullen played by Mel Gibson
- David Torres played by José Zúñiga
- Det. Jimmy Shaker played by Gary Sinise
- Kate Mullen played by Rene Russo
