A low-key Suspenser emphasizing empathetic concerns at the expense of a more driving narrative. It is a talky affair with downbeat discussions and attention to melodramatic detail. The movie suffers and suffocates in its own self-consciousness and less than explanatory story.

It is a somewhat engaging affair of character flaws with a forever slow and steady pulse that builds some tension but never allows access to the deep demands of the style it presents.

The ending is better than the rest but is still quite unsatisfying and leaves the viewer unfulfilled with frustrations from the lackluster bemoaning's from listless and less than interesting people.

Wayne (Robert Redford) and Eileen Hayes (Helen Mirren) live a comfortable upper class life in Pittsburgh high class suburb. They have two grown children (Alessandro Nivola, Melissa Sagemiller). Then Wayne disappears. He's been kidnapped by former employee Arnold Mack (Willem Dafoe). The FBI investigates which reveals Wayne's ongoing affair. Eventually Arnold demands a ransom.

The movie lacks the normal intensity. It's filled with a lot of the inbetween moments. It's a style that keeps the tension simmering at low. There are great actors here and it's fascinating to see them interact. There is also a timeline split going on. It's a great idea but it needs some more thought on its execution. This movie just needs greater intensity.

Millionaire businessman, whose changing corporate ventures have ultimately left one particular employee out of a job, is kidnapped by the desperate, disillusioned lost soul and is walked out into the desolate woods...but not before he can probe his captor's mind and find out where he's coming from. Reasonably suspenseful and absorbing thriller, rather unnecessarily underlined with today's economic woes, doesn't have a forceful hook behind it save for the casting of Robert Redford as the kidnap-ee. Redford does solid work, though he makes an unlikely long-time husband for Helen Mirren (miscast) and his give-and-take with Willem Dafoe is edgy without being particularly enlightening. Producer-director Pieter Jan Brugge, who also worked on the original treatment of the screenplay with writer Justin Haythe, juggles the timeline of the proceedings effectively, but there's really nowhere for this downbeat story to go. Jan Brugge concentrates on character and motivation in place of melodramatic action--which is refreshing--yet the people involved are not an exciting lot, and the final act is stretched pretty thin. **1/2 from ****