Tödliche Augenblicke

My wife and I found this on our pay per view channel, and from the synopsis, thought it looked worth watching. We were not disappointed. This is a very good film, in the genre of "Chinatown" and "Changeling". The story (without spoilers), is briefly as follows:

A police detective (John Hamm) has lost his only son eight years earlier, when he went to the restroom in a diner. The usual guilt and strain on his marriage ensues, as he tries to go through life with this unsolved mystery haunting him.

He is drawn into a case of another missing child, and becomes obsessed with that search, to try to find some vindication for what has happened to him. Throughout this exploration, the story is told in two stories, of him and the father of the other missing child, creating parallels, and differences in the two cases.

Eventually the dots connect and lead to a very dramatic ending. although it's a little too neatly tied up.

This is a very entertaining movie, which grabs your interest from the start, engages you with the duplicate stories throughout, and provides some twists and turns at the end, for added effect.

I really enjoyed it and am surprised that it wasn't released theatrically, as I think it is much better than the current "Ghost Writer", for example. It's a good mystery tale, and very worth watching!

STOLEN is a small budget film that deals with a major problem - loss of a child by abduction and the desperate need to find that child despite the passage of many years. Writer Glenn Taranto and Director Anders Anderson present two cases of kidnapping and murder, space them fifty years apart and interconnect the two stories in a way that is both disturbing psychologically and confusing as a film. It works on many levels and the absence of information about motivation interferes with allowing this movie to be more powerful.

Ten years ago police officer Tom Adkins, Sr (Jon Hamm) left his only son Tom Jr. in a diner for a moment, only to return and find him missing. His abilities as a law enforcement officer and his guilt as a 'negligent' father erodes his life and his marriage to Barbara (Rhona Mitra): he is unable to give up the search for his missing son despite the ten years of absence, a factor that practically drives his marriage to divorce. A body is found in a box and Tom Sr immediately thinks it is his son, but investigation reveals that it is the body of a child that has been dead for fifty years. The film then begins a series of flashbacks to a story fifty years ago when a young father Matthew Wakefield (Josh Lucas), having lost all of his money and home and facing the resultant suicide of his wife decides he must place his three children with relatives: one son, John (Jimmy Bennett), is mentally challenged, and Matthew's relatives will only take the two 'normal' boys, leaving John to live with his unemployed father. Matthew finds a room for the two of them and begins works at a construction site, John tags along to be with his dad - a problem for the boss of the construction site. Matthew forms friends with Diploma (James Van Der Beek) and Swede (Holt McCallany), is diverted by a sexual liaison, and during that time John is abducted. We lose track of Matthew at this point, but jumping back to the present the discovered boy's body proves to be John Wakefield and this discovery consumes Tom Sr to uncover the murderer of the Wakefield boy, hoping that in some way it ties in with the disappearance of his own son. The plot becomes a bit murky at this point and a bit to 'rush to climax', but needless to say the murders are connected and Tom Sr and his wife are able to come to grips with the fact that Tom Jr is lost forever.

The film is shot in a a somewhat sepia color when dealing with the murder of fifty years ago and remains dusty appearing through the present - not unlike the soil that has hidden the uncovered truths so well. The acting is fine, with some very fine cameo appearances by Johanna Cassidy as Tom Sr.'s mother and Jessica Chastain and Rose Montgomery as the feminine influences. The makeup artists have done the film a disservice as they try to age people fifty years as the film winds down: to say more would be to give away the ending. But the reason the film works is the commitment behind relating these tragedies on the part of all concerned. It is especially noteworthy in that it is the work of a relatively inexperienced writer and director.

Grady Harp

Perhaps the most daunting prospect for anyone wanting to watch this film is not piecing together the identification of a serial killer, it is watching the unraveling of the police detective and his marriage as the loss of his son, grabbed whilst momentarily out of sight, taunts him even eight years after it happened. This film does not let go of the torture this father endures as he tries to piece together all the similarities between his loss and that of a previous child whose body has been discovered. We observe how his wife comes slowly to terms with the fact her son may be dead, but he cannot let go.

The story is never easily told perhaps because the director wished us to explore the notion that reality is seldom something we confront without absolute proof. At times the acting is so real we may feel like giving up on this father because if he cannot let go then we can, but we persevere as he does.

Although I felt the story could have been better told I did end up admiring this work simply because it is very human exposing all the faults and frailties of our lives. It is also ultimately cathartic with a natural release with allows us to breathe again.

It is certainly a fine film and well worth watching.

STOLEN – CATCH IT ( B ) Stolen is a TV drama like movie, which moves slowly and gradually. Still its captivating story and characterization keeps us binding. I love how director mixed the 70s story with the present time. Jon Hamm is really good, I haven't seen Mad Men (it's On My Do List) yet but heard a lot about him. Watching Josh Lucas is always a pleasure, maybe he is too honest and handsome that's why? Rohna Mitra did a good job though she doesn't have much spoken scenes. Jessica Chastain and Morena Baccarin are Gorgeous. James Van Der Beek is Creepy. Overall a good time pass movie, which is quite provocative because of subject matter but shot in very non-provocative way.

Yes, I am biased, but he is definitely a sympathetic character in this film weaving a 1940's child killing to a current missing child case (grieving father well-portrayed by Jon Hamm/"Mad Men"). Hamm is also good here as he shows a different and more human side of his acting ability. In "Mad Men" he plays a slight sexist (apropos for that era, though).

Lucas has three sons, Mark, Luke and John. The youngest child John is autistic (in the 1940's that was clearly a cardinal sin.). When Lucas' wife commits suicide and they are foreclosed on, he must hit the road to find any employment, and give his sons to in-laws to take care of them. His brother-in-law, Jonas is a nasty piece of work and refuses to take care of "the autistic one" John.

Lucas finds construction work with a random group, one ("The Swede", played by Holt McCallany, and one portrayed by James Van Der Beek, nicknamed "diploma").

The peripheral/current story of Hamm and his marital woes with Barbara are rather predictable, though we feel for him becoming obsessed with this 50 year old case of the murdered autistic child John.

Without detailing the outcome, I will say there are some notable performances by Hamm and Lucas here, and the haunting story of missing and murdered children, and how society treats them.

It is also a timely story, children in the U.S. are murdered and missing every day. Highly recommended. If you like this theme you may also like "The Dead Girl" an amazing film about a missing girl and how society treats disaffected people. 10/10.