Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The beginning of this was interesting, though we've see other "Ransom gone wrong" films before (Ransom, High and Low). But this quickly went south and never came back.Sam Rockwell was good but both his dialogue and screen time seemed purposefully short. The "Ruby" character was played well enough for the viewer to buy her as genuinely crazed, though there is little pity felt for her once the full story is learned. The daughter stands out as one of the best performances in the VERY few lines she has, Also the maid was well played, and her dialogue important and tense without sounding phony or trite.The biggest problems i felt were 2. Firstly that the main character was NOT a good person and this wasn't reinforced in a way that made you either despise him or empathize with him in spite of his shortcomings. The director clearly couldn't ably spend so much time focusing on the character's plight in trying to reclaim his duaghter from the kidnappers and still portray him as overall despicable.The viewer is left feeling that even though he did something truly bad that no one really cares.Secondly is that the last 20 minutes of the film are ABSOLUTELY, COMICALLY BAD. BAD BAD BAD!The main character sinks into a despair (which wasn't explored well enough) and ends up in the ghetto buying drugs he's never tried and then ends up in the care of a truly crazy man. Here's the toss-up. I can't decide, myself, whether it was really bad writing or if they actually got a crazy subway guy to play the part of, well, himself.I say this because most of the actual street crazies i've run into in my life (and i seem to attract them like a magnet) are loud, self interested and their craziness is usually completely boring. They seem to more often be stringing together words that make no sense together or railing diatribes about ideas which they themselves haven't fully thought out. Like they're randomly talking just to be noticed. Such is the character we see at the end of this film. It's SO BAD we can't decide whether to laugh out loud or just push eject.I rented this one as a fan of Sam Rockwell's and wanted to see some earlier stuff. Whoever made this movie should NEVER BE ALLOWED TO USE A CAMERA AGAIN! Ever. No one wants to see what he's got to show, or hear what he thinks he's got to say.It was like watching spiders with half their legs pulled off trying to escape a glass bowl.That's all i have.

The films of this director have, for me, been hit or miss. Shepard is a consistently good director, with deep values and a great sense of sarcastic humor. The problem is with the scripts that he chooses or co-creates. But this film is by far his best, especially because of its fine performances. As always, Sam Rockwell is captivating and John Rubinstein delivers a solid performance. But the runaway star of the film is its unusual villain. Amber Kain is a fireball of raw genius. She is brilliantly disturbing in the role of "Ruby." It takes an actor of rare humility to commit to playing such an unlikable role. It takes an even more rare talent to make such an unlikable character sympathetic. Amber Kain scores on both counts, much like Angelina Jolie did as the character of "Lisa" in Girl, Interrupted. Amber Kain is a movie star in the making that audiences will love to hate. The only question now is: can she play nice?

No, wait - it IS a train wreck. Did ANYBODY view this thing before releasing it? Some of the acting in this is worse than I've seen in High School productions, believe me!The only reason to keep watching is to see if it ever gets better, or how much worse the direction / dialog / acting (using that term loosely here) can get. Was hoping for some sort of redemption, but don't waste your time like I did. Truly - this was a waste of film or whatever they shot it on. Sam Rockwell should hire someone to burn the masters. It's 90 minutes I'll never get back.

A film maker who succeeds in holding our attention firmly for the entire length of his movie and causing us to empathize with the characters, is doing something right. If he's done this on a clearly minuscule budget, all the more credit is deserved..Richard Shepherd's does all this with "Mercy". While it's not unlike many other kidnap dramas, it's executed with a sure hand and nicely played by all. John Rubinstein, not usually a lead actor, does very well in the part. Sam Rockwell is (yet again!) an incompetent small time criminal and all the other supporting parts are well portrayed. While extremely competent, ultimately there is not enough here to get too excited about, but Shepherd is a writer/director to watch out for.