Please do not read this if you haven't seen the movie.
I was extremely disappointed in this movie. It is well made, has great actors, and a great beginning, but it goes absolutely nowhere. It completely failed in achieving its potential. It does not tell the real story. It feels like just half a movie.
The movie concentrates on his effort to free his wife, but that is not the real story. The real story revolves around whether she did it or not, and whether, once they are free, she is either absolved or exposed. That is interesting. The mechanics of engineering an escape are boring, and his descent into robbery and murder to free his wife are not interesting because we do not follow his journey into anguish and despair. The emotional journey is not there. The film makers have made it hard on themselves by having the couple have a young son. His presence forces the father to keep his act together and act normal. Without him the actor could have given his anguish much more exposure.
I would like to have seen the first half of this movie showing the murder, her capture, their escape to a foreign country, always keeping her guilt ambiguous, and the second half the cop, who is a strong charismatic character, hunt them down and finally capture them. He could become convinced of her innocence and they would only receive a light sentence for running away, but you would always suspect she was really guilty and that he was duped. Or perhaps he is fixated on her guilt and hunts them down and captures them, but in the ensuing court case, she is proved innocent. However, years later he discovers he was right after all. Or perhaps he never finds them, but years later he runs into their grown son, and finally discovers the truth about what she did.
This movie is extremely frustrating, because so much potential was lost.
I was extremely disappointed in this movie. It is well made, has great actors, and a great beginning, but it goes absolutely nowhere. It completely failed in achieving its potential. It does not tell the real story. It feels like just half a movie.
The movie concentrates on his effort to free his wife, but that is not the real story. The real story revolves around whether she did it or not, and whether, once they are free, she is either absolved or exposed. That is interesting. The mechanics of engineering an escape are boring, and his descent into robbery and murder to free his wife are not interesting because we do not follow his journey into anguish and despair. The emotional journey is not there. The film makers have made it hard on themselves by having the couple have a young son. His presence forces the father to keep his act together and act normal. Without him the actor could have given his anguish much more exposure.
I would like to have seen the first half of this movie showing the murder, her capture, their escape to a foreign country, always keeping her guilt ambiguous, and the second half the cop, who is a strong charismatic character, hunt them down and finally capture them. He could become convinced of her innocence and they would only receive a light sentence for running away, but you would always suspect she was really guilty and that he was duped. Or perhaps he is fixated on her guilt and hunts them down and captures them, but in the ensuing court case, she is proved innocent. However, years later he discovers he was right after all. Or perhaps he never finds them, but years later he runs into their grown son, and finally discovers the truth about what she did.
This movie is extremely frustrating, because so much potential was lost.