Once again it’s time to delve into a film from yesteryear that, thanks to the passage of time, carries a little extra baggage with it these days that the filmmakers may not have originally expected. Yep, the 90s seem to be littered with movies that end up being problematic for some reason, be it a dated approach to a social topic or the inclusion on of an performer since has fallen out of favour. So let’s rip that band aid off as quick as we can and get the issue immediately out into the open – yes, Mel Gibson is the lead in this film and yes, he’s playing a (mostly) fine and upstanding citizen who has to heroically weather a horrific crime when his son is kidnapping for the titular monetary demand.
Now we’ve gotten that out of way, it’s easy to forget that this chunk of 90s thriller was helmed by Hollywood’s most prolific, cap wearing chameleon, Ron Howard, whose raison d’être seemed to be to attack as many different genres as humanly possible in a single career. Could the team of Gibbo and Howie manage to serve up solid thrills while figuratively bringing home the cash?
Millionaire Tom Mullen is something of a self made man after building up his airline from practically nothing; however, while he seems to have built his empire upon a base of integrity, he’s been recently been dogged by allegations of bribery that’s pissed off the unions. Still, that hasn’t stopped Tom from spending time with his loving wife, Kate, and his devoted young son, Sean and the family seem to be living a charmed life as they attend a science fair. However, their present existence is about to be torpedoed by fate when an opportunistic band of kidnappers manage to whisk Sean away to hold him to ransom for $2 million.
The Mullens are understandably devastated, and, despite the kidnappers distorted demands of no police, the couple enlist the FBI to aid them get their son back in one piece. Assigned veteran negotiatior Special Agent Lonnie Hawkins, the Mullens start off dutifully following protocol, jumping through the hoops the kidnappers set them to deliver their cash, a near-disaster alters Tom’s mindset that switches him from playing defence to offence. From here, Tom enacts an audacious plan that not only puts the cat among the pigeons at home, but stirs up the allegiances within the gang of kidnappers to the point where they’re at each other’s throats.
However, what we have now is a battle of wills between father and abducter with the life of his son in the balance and while Tom is grimly determined to beat the villains at their own game, both his wife and Hawkins desperately beg him to reconsider.
Who will blink first? And what will the repercussions be if Tom’s plotting pushes the ones holding his kid too far? Will they break? Will they kill Sean? Or will the leader suddenly pivot in a way that continues the dangerous game even further?
While Ransom seemingly isn’t as beloved as other 90s crime thrillers such as Heat, L.A. Confidential or Pulp Fiction, you’ll be hard pushed to find a more solid outing that emerged from the decade. Ron Howard’s jack of all trades attitude is a perfect fit for such a tense, but populist slice of criminal chicanery and before his infamous behavior got him in hot water, Gibson specialised in playing virtuous salts of the earth who also has a determined edge to them when their family is threatened. But while Ransom could have been an exercise in standard plotting and by the numbers twists, it’s given a major boost in the sphincter clenching department by some margin by some genuinely intriguing paths being taken. Of course, to pick them apart, we’ll have to take an all expenses trip to spoiler town, but to be honest, I won’t be dropping anything that probably wasn’t in the trailer.
For it’s first hour, Ransom play exactly how you think things are going to play, with Howard focusing mostly on the mental trauma forced upon both Gibson and his Lethal Weapon co-star, Rene Russo as Delroy Lindo’s FBI agent tries to guide them through the finer points of not having their child mailed back to them in pieces. Watching both the leads try to outdo each other in feigning the horrifying grief and nauseating worry a parent goes through in a situation like this is perversely fascinating, with Gibson that his shaky fidgeting can match Russo literally dry heaving in panic. Similarly, Howard and a script by Richard (The Color Of Money) Price ensure that they cover the spread by also exploring the misadventures of the kidnappers beyond just being threatening voices on the phone. Forming the unsavory characters are a tattooed Lili Taylor, a hulking Liv Schreiber, a drugged out Evan Handler and a simple-minded Donnie Wahlberg and their tenuous union us only held together by the haggard looking eyebags of Gary Sinise’s corrupt scumbag cop. Watching the screws tighten on the bad guys just as much as it does on the good guys would be gripping enough as is, but the film throws in a mid-flick twist that proves to be the sweet spot.
It was kind of a shame that the trailers for Ransom felt the need to spoil a major twist that sees Gibson’s bullheaded dad turn the $2 million ransom into a reward in order to flip the tables on the crooks and not only does it rachet up the tension as Sinise visibly gets more haggard by the scene, but it besmirches the character of Gibson’s lead as he essentially plays chicken with his son’s life on a hunch. Tom believes that his son is dead whether he pays the money or not, so instead of caving, his acts of bravado raise a fair bit of doubt if he’s doing the right thing.
It’s a bit of a shame then, that Ransom chooses to resolve its facinating moral quandries by allowing Gibson to emerge from that murky grey area and finishing things off in a typical shootout. While Sinise’s villain (bizarrely demonising the working class while Gibbo’s millionaire gets to finally be the white hat) performs a neat twist to ensure the reward at great personal cost, it ultimately ends up being part of some strange plot contortions in order to get Gibson a gun in his hand. It’s a satisfying ending when taken purely on Hollywood standards, but for a story that delivers some truly ballsy turns, it’s a wee bit of a cop out that Howard resorts to simplistic, don’t-mess-with-my-family tropes to wrap things up. Weirdly, Ransom seemed find Howard to be in a strangely violent mood, with George Romero-sized blood squibs going off all over the place when shit gets squirrelly – but while I don’t mind a bit of crimson with my crime, it’s actually not that necessary for the film that he’s actually trying to make; but then Gibson loves that sort of stuff, so…
Somewhat unfairly slept on in the years since, Ransom has been somewhat left in the cold when conversations come around to solid, 90s thrillers. But while the misadventures of Mel Gibson probably explain why this movie isn’t bandied around more, it stands as a nicely twisty, intriguingly complex pulse pounder that puts the villains through the wringer just as much as the tortured parents. A handsome ransom, then.
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