Review

Ransom

NADEEM A. KHAN

The Players:

Tom Mullen: Mel Gibson

Kate Mullen: Rene Russo

Sean Mullen: Brawley Nolte

Jimmy Shaker: Gary Sinise

Agent Lonnie Hawkins: Delroy Lindo

Maris Connor: Lili Taylor

Directed by Ron Howard.

Written by Richard Price and Alexander Ignon. Based on a story by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum.

Running time: 121 minutes. Rated R (for graphic bloody violence and strong language).

I n hindsight, the previews were misleading. They told us that Mel Gibson plays a brash tycoon with a grave problem on hand-- his son's been snatched. Mel goes on air with an alarming advertisement: Anyone with information leading to his son's recovery will receive a reward equal to the ransom ($2million) demanded. The cameras pan to the bundles of currency sprawled on the table in front of him; his kid's photo is pasted on a couple of screens in the background. This is where the previews leave off.

The conjectures fly in your head. You would be silly to presume that with Mel Gibson in the lead, he will sit idly while the FBI get on the case. You know Mel is more likely to roll up the sleeves, kick the FBI aside, and get his kid back--all by himself.

Wrong. This is Ron Howard's work and he does things differently. His scoundrels are smarter than usual; they pick the right target--a self-made billionaire with a habit of buying himself out of trouble. They communicate through e-mail, bring down FBI mainframes, and leave zilch in terms of a trail. Most extraordinarily, their leader is a cop, one of New York's finest, a man who hates rich people and has the perfect plan--to make himself rich by making the wealthy suffer.

Howard's heroes do it by the numbers. Even if the man involved is Mel Gibson. Casting him as the victimized father was a brilliant move. Only Mel can get in the villains' faces, hang up when they call, and get away with calling them liars and other strong names. Only Mel could have the gall to refuse ransom orders and put a bounty on the kidnappers. And although you feel his heart fluttering like a captive bird as he makes those ludicrous moves, only Mel could have brought this maniacal uncertainty to his character. He is convincing. We relate to him well because we know him well from his harum scarum escapades in the Lethal Weapon trilogy.

Still, Mel's energy is not enough to counter the director's unsteady timing. Certain scenes could have been speeded through. Others could have received more attention. The kidnap scene, which is the central part of the movie, is staged in a disinterested fashion. There is tension, but no fear. Blame the previews, partly, for that. Going into the theatre, we already know that the kid will be kidnapped. How it is accomplished is TV movie stuff-- not some mega-bucks deal.

There is little build up during the first half as Howard runs in too many directions. On the one hand he had to show the close-knit nature of the billionaire family in order to impress the sense of loss that the kidnapping creates. Then he discovered his crooks were colorful and set out to build on their characters. The action picks up but the characters and histories are left unfinished. These are not exactly loose ends, merely ones that have been left open; on purpose, for dramatic effect, and just as well because there is no time to fit everything.

It's distressing to not know more. Tom Mullen (Mel Gibson) for example, is depicted as one who buys his way out of trouble. We can infer that he had this publicized feud with a union leader who wound up in jail because Tom lied at a hearing. Giving the hero a twisted character was a brave ploy and would have had a greater impact if we had learnt more about his controversial past.

Howard is more competent with the kidnappers. Their characters are richer and more endearing than the Mullens'. Donnie Wahlberg (New Kids on the Block) is the wooly small time hustler roped into the scheme by his brother to die tragically. There is a recurring alcoholic who stays sober long enough to get shot. The insensitive Maris Connor (Lili Taylor) is the love interest of the head of the enterprise, Jimmy Shakker (Gary Sinise). Howard delays Gary's entrance nicely but teases us unnecessarily with his first few minutes: Shortly after the kidnapping, Jimmy, a NYPD cop, follows one of the kidnappers into the hideout, suspiciously, gun drawn, when all along he was the one who had planned the crime. This attempt at creating suspense is in poor taste and was wasted on those in the audience who had caught the previews and already knew Gary's position in the scheme of things.

Tease: The word sums up "Ransom". The director had his hands full of players, situations and possibilities and he teases us with this variety. After the boy is restored, the parents take him out to the same park from where he was kidnapped a few days earlier!

Other scenes also could have used clearer reasoning. In one, Tom is about to drop off the ransom money when suddenly, FBI helicopters pop out from behind trees, lights glaring. How silent are these choppers that no one hears them until the last possible moment?

In another, Jimmy walks past a door and peers through the peep hole and sees the kidnapped boy, bound and gagged inside the room. Two way peep hole?

The ending has little to be convinced about and even less to be satisfied with, especially the stopgap finale during which Tom and Jimmy first throw punches at each other and then each other through a huge shop window--that smashes into a million pieces a tad easily. Up to this point, the script had governed Mel's physical involvement to a minimal, by traditional Gibson standards, and the uncouth slug fest is out of place with the mostly cerebral theme.

The cast is fine but Rene Russo (Kate Mullen) left me cold. Her bit was restricted to throwing spoilt fits at the FBI. Some of her scenes with Gibson could be mistaken for Another Lethal Weapon.