'Ransom' delivers
Campus Times
November 1,1996
Moviegoers leave the General Cinema's Hollywood Galaxy on Hollywood
Blvd. Tuesday night after seeing an advanced screening of the new Touchstone
Pictures film, "Ransom." The picture, directed by Ron Howard and
starring Mel Gibson, Rene Russo and Gary Sinise, opens in wide release Nov.
8.
Directed by Ron Howard and starring Mel Gibson as business tycoon Tom Mullen
and Rene Russo as his wife Kate, "Ransom" rings all too familiar
to the typical kidnapped child storyline with the eventual safe return.
But "Ransom" does not deliver this simple plot and fairy tale
solution.
A frenzy of fear is prompted by the disappearance of Gibson and Russo's
son Sean (Brawley Nolte) at a junior science project competition.
An eerie email message alerts Gibson and Russo that their son is being held
hostage for a ransom of $2 million. Not a large sum of money to the owner
of Endeavor, a multi-billion dollar airline, Gibson responds to the terrorist's
phone calls with genuine fear and willingness to deliver the money in cash.
Howard builds suspense as he lets viewers into the hectic Mullen household,
crowded with FBI agents, while switching to the cluttered house of the terrorists
as they leave Nolte handcuffed to a bed.
After several wild goose chases, Gibson successfully transforms from a tycoon,
accustomed to getting things his way, to a disheartened parent.
The on-screen relationship between Russo and Gibson effectively maintains
a separation between the emotional mother and the logical father, until
the last half hour of the movie when Gibson can no longer cater to his role
as the strong parent.
As if the missing child was not enough to drive a wedge, Howard incorporates
an intrusive media and a dishonest FBI agent (Delroy Lindo), leaving Tom
and Kate flip-flopping in and out of sanity throughout the ordeal.
Russo is torn between her loyalty as Gibson's wife and as a mother and conflict
is heightened when she uncharacteristically defies her husband.
All the while, the audience discovers the various levels of dedication of
each terrorist. The quintet of dysfunctional kidnappers, headed by a crooked
cop (Gary Sinise), find that their leader has a little more in mind than
just the money.
Throughout the two-hour drama, Gibson's past comes back to haunt him with
the help of Sinise. After skating by an illegal pay-off for his airline
years earlier, Sinise reminds him, "You're a payer. You did it once,
now you're going to do it again."
Sinise is Jimmy Shaker, a detective who is a smooth criminal until his ego
gets the best of him. Sinise provokes mixed emotions as he easily changes
from a lover to a madman.
The climax is reached as Gibson makes a final desperate attempt at saving
his son's life by reversing the ransom on national television by doubling
the amount and making it a $4 million reward for deliverance of the kidnappers,
dead or alive.