StolenBased On A True Story Golden Globe® Award winner Jon Hamm of MAD MEN stars as Detective Tom Adkins, a devoted cop haunted by the unsolved disappearance of his young son eight years earlier. But when Adkins discovers the buried remains of a boy who was brutally murdered more than half a century ago, he becomes obsessed with investigating the long-forgotten crime. Is the 1958 mystery surrounding down-on-his-luck family man Matthew Wakefield (Josh Lucas of GLORY ROAD) and his own abducted son linked in any way to Adkins tragedy? And even if Adkins can prove a connection, can he face the shocking truth about the killer? Rhona Mitra (BOSTON LEGAL, DOOMSDAY), Morena Baccarin (SERENITY) and James Van Der Beek co-star in this harrowing thriller about the parallel lives of two men for whom secrets will not stay hidden when hope has been STOLEN.
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(out of 7 reviews)
Review by Charles D. Bushroe for Stolen
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I watched this movie expecting to see an ordinary murder mystery. Instead, I was deeply moved by the story of one man’s journey to redemption and the unbearable grief a father sustains at the tragic loss of his child under circumstances that lead the fatheer to blame himself.
A policeman (actor John Hamm)investigates the discovery of a child’s body in a box in the foundation of a 50 year old building and determines that the death of the child is connected to the disappearance of his small boy ten years before. Meanwhile, a parallel story is occurring some 50 years before to another man (actor Josh Lucas) and the disappearance of his small boy. In each cases the father took his eyes off of his child for a short time and in each case the child disappeared, never to be found.
Now, the detective searches for what happened to the boy in the box, hoping to somehow find his son alive. As the suspense builds and the two stories begin to head toward an intersection, the emotional intensity of the movie takes it from an ordinary whodunnit to tour de force of the power of love, grief, and reconciliation.
The acting is superb, the directing is gifted, and the simplicity of the various settings and characters remind me of another great movie based on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize winning “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
Review by Viva for Stolen
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Jon Hamm does a great job here as a detective whose son goes missing and who also ends up investigating another case of a missing boy from 50 years earlier. Much of the movie is given in flashbacks, while the present shows what a strain the detective is under because of the conflicts with his wife and his own strong feelings.
James van der Beek, a long way from Dawson’s Creek, also turns in a good performance as a hired hand who knows something about the 1958 case.
Worth a look.
Review by Gilgamesh for Stolen
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The high-quality acting and direction for Stolen made up for an unremarkable story. Despite the grim subject matter, it was not tense or disturbing. It is definitely worth watching once.
There are some elements of the movie that bothered me. I was never convinced by the killer’s motivation–if he really even had one. Do police officers and reporters often work crime scenes together? Why were things always spilling, dropping, breaking, and slipping away (coffee, batter, etc.)? What was it in the water that made most of the men plain and all of the women beautiful–Morena Baccarin as a lonely wife of a gas station owner!?
Although not an especially memorable movie, your time spent watching it will not be wasted.
Review by Grady Harp for Stolen
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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, June 10
Review by Eric Sanberg for Stolen
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This was a good idea. A detective’s son is kidnapped and after 8 years another boy’s body shows up at a construction site. The problem is this boy’s been dead for 50 years. But the detective sees similarities in the two cases so he’s all over it. The movie then volleys between the story of the old murder and the detective’s investigation of his own son’s case.
This is an intriguing premise on the surface but it doesn’t come off. The movie is a slow ride and some of the plot elements, such as Josh Lucas’ hooking up with a married woman with a violent husband, just don’t make sense. Then there’s the climax. This is the scene where everything is supposed to come together and it falls flat. This is a poorly written scene containing some skewed logic and it felt lousy that I had to sit through this slowness to get to this scene and be fed this garbage.
The acting is decent though nobody is really straining their milk. The production values, music, etc. are all decent. This fails at the script level. I gave it 3 stars but it could easily slide back to 2 and a half. If you think you want to see a movie like this try reaching for Gone Baby Gone. It’s much better.