RANSOM (58)

Directed by: Ron Howard

Starring: Mel Gibson, Gary Sinise, Rene Russo

The Pitch: When his young son is abducted, a self-made millionaire decides to turn the tables on the kidnappers.

Theo Sez: There's a great idea at the centre of this movie - the ruthless capitalist entrepreneur, self-made through determined aggression, moral myopia and sheer self-belief, falling back on his instincts when his son is kidnapped. Gibson, who began his career as a first-rate dramatic actor in GALLIPOLI and THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY, sometimes overdoes the "acting" here yet really captures the steely-eyed implacability in this affable tycoon, a man who's built his life around getting his own way in the face of opposition and - once he reverts to "business" mode - simply refuses to back down or to think about the fact that he's playing with his child's life. The scene where he and the chief kidnapper yell macho bullshit at each other over the phone - two men who understand each other, before a crowd of horrified onlookers - is the wittiest variation yet on the crime / business equation in 'hood movies like NEW JACK CITY or (the same writer's) CLOCKERS. The film seems a little alarmed by what it's created, even giving its hero the standard this-isn't-business-this-is-personal spiel in an (unsuccessful) attempt to defuse the implications of his character; indeed, it doesn't seem to want much more than to be an action film. Yet in fact the action scenes are weak, most obviously the bathetic and confusingly-shot ransom-drop sequence (on which subject, how could the Feds "follow the money" when it had changed bags?), and it seems unable to contrive the expected big climax, trying instead to replace it with a lot of little ones. It's a reasonably effective movie, yet it perhaps exemplifies the perils of the package deal, movies made in a rush to accommodate the various players' schedules: the nuts-and-bolts not sufficiently worked out, the more interesting subtext ironed out at worst, left dangling and undeveloped at best. At least this is the "at best" - however battered and neglected, a subtext does exist.