@Renovatio said:

Quality suspense & mystery... I like how it builds slowly and is compounded by the police politics and such, as well as the constant tension of the missing boy...

Quality genre movie that highlights how easy it is for us to lose our humanity in the face of institutional corruption and the importance of solidarity and empathy...

Loads of mood and atmosphere... Worth checking out... 😎

Yes, a pretty decent film with lots of different aspects. I particularly enjoyed the portrayal of senior members of a large organisation like the police having the number one priority of avoiding any situation that might cause embarrassment. No matter the lies, misinformation or hostility required to do this. Having worked in some large organisations it really rang true. When individuals of low ability are promoted beyond their abilities, they are so insecure in their own abilities and terrified of scrutiny that they will recruit individuals willing to say that black is white if only it will preserve the reputation of the organisation.

Deftly done from the pen of the man who gave us the thinking man's sci-fi Babylon 5. I felt some of the acting was not the greatest (I didn't particularly enjoy Jolie or Malkovich in this) and purely from a film perspective it might have ended more neatly an hour earlier following a trial. But these are relatively minor quibbles.

7/10

It's a strange story. Strange stories don't always make good movies. Starts out being an abduction story, then it's about a corrupt police force, then it's about an abduction again. I'm not saying it isn't a well made film, but I find it distasteful.

@MongoLloyd said:

It's a strange story. Strange stories don't always make good movies. Starts out being an abduction story, then it's about a corrupt police force, then it's about an abduction again. I'm not saying it isn't a well made film, but I find it distasteful.

That's understandable to find it distasteful - films on real serial killers often are regardless of the passage of time (this being shot 80 years after the events) and are usually things I'll avoid on point of principle. There was definitely scope for avoiding any depiction of kids being hacked to death. Finding bones is enough for anyone to join the dots without having to go into any further detail.

No, that's not why I find it distasteful. As mentioned, I do so because it's a bit all over the place, narratively speaking.

Apologies, my mistake. The hacking to death of children was done in the best possible taste :D

Plus, the resolution wasn't satisfying. I couldn't care less about the murderer singing silent night.

I didn't like how they changed some facts for sealing and to promote feminism.

In example, in reality the boy's father was arrested for robbery, he didn't just left them. And Christine took 4 days to call the police after the boy disappearance, she thought he was kidnapped under order of his father or some of his enemies. And they omitted Northcott's mother, who participated on some murders and confessed killing the boy. They also suggested that the fake boy lied under police idea, when in reality he had fled home and somebody believed he was the boy so he just moved with it to go to los angeles.

In anyway, I'd accept the police believe on the fake boy, but it was unacceptable for them to force Christine to accept him and send her to asylum when she insisted he wasn't her son. Indeed they were very similar visually and easy to confuse, but of course that a few hours talking or living together would be enough to figure. They should have believed her and make proper investigation.