Movie's best asset is its structural variation: two teens steal a carriage, with a four year-old boy inside who is injured and then killed. The teens go to jail and after eight years one of them is released. We follow him until, an hour into the film the story backs up and focuses on the mother whose child was kidnapped all those years ago by our lead character. Now we stay with her until this storyline merges with the young man who snatched her child. The final act is action-packed (by the standards of this film) and fills in what happened to the kidnapped child all those years ago.
Unfortunately our young male lead is, after his release from prison, not terribly active in his new life, slinking around passively with a one-note, dour look on his face. It's something of a mystery why the beautiful pastor at the church where he works would be drawn to him; in any case, it's a relief to team up with the wronged woman at the midpoint. She's far more active, a little crazy (who wouldn't be after losing a child?) and not easy for her husband or two adopted kids to live with.
Unfortunately, the longueur of the initial fifty minutes of the film is never really overcome. The story's essential sadness, the ponderous characters and the evil banality of the final revelation all make for what is essentially an unrewarded effort. The story's structure is interesting and fun – there are small flashforwards and –backs throughout that work effectively – and the novel storytelling might have worked with a slightly more dynamic plot. But what really sinks things is the performance of Pal Sverre Valheim Hagen as the child killer (for which the director must take the blame). His portrayal, while believable, is enervating and not charismatic enough to carry even half a movie.
Unfortunately our young male lead is, after his release from prison, not terribly active in his new life, slinking around passively with a one-note, dour look on his face. It's something of a mystery why the beautiful pastor at the church where he works would be drawn to him; in any case, it's a relief to team up with the wronged woman at the midpoint. She's far more active, a little crazy (who wouldn't be after losing a child?) and not easy for her husband or two adopted kids to live with.
Unfortunately, the longueur of the initial fifty minutes of the film is never really overcome. The story's essential sadness, the ponderous characters and the evil banality of the final revelation all make for what is essentially an unrewarded effort. The story's structure is interesting and fun – there are small flashforwards and –backs throughout that work effectively – and the novel storytelling might have worked with a slightly more dynamic plot. But what really sinks things is the performance of Pal Sverre Valheim Hagen as the child killer (for which the director must take the blame). His portrayal, while believable, is enervating and not charismatic enough to carry even half a movie.