Waste of time

Good concept, poorly executed.

Admirable film.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Do yourself a favor...watch this movie! Josh Lucas, John Hamm, and James Van Byke all give wonderfully superb performances in this dual plot story. The story of 2 fathers in different eras with the same issue, searching for his missing son is woven to perfection. An extremely pressing and reoccurring theme set the base for a beautifully sad story that occurs so often in so many places. The scripting was wonderful and the settings are so natural and not overpowering as many Hollywood films are. I'd kept this on my netflix queue for so long, I started to watch it three times before I fully committed. I was sorry I'd postponed it so long. Such a beautiful film with stellar performances. Watch watch!

I was flipping through channels late last night when I found Stolen. I must admit I was frozen and watched the whole movie without touching the remote control. I know Josh Lucas from another movie or show that I don't remember, I know Jessica Chastain and a few more from the cast but not a fan enough to watch their movie for the name alone. I don't know the director so the movie held the whole of my attention in the wee hours of the night is a feat I must say.I didn't find Stolen worthy of an Oscar in all reality. The movie doesn't look too ambitious to be an Oscar hopeful. Instead it speaks the language of complex human emotions and very subliminally narrates entwined tragedies of misfortune, of personal behavior and of choices. There's also the presence of thumping, pulsating Love which continues in the face of all tragedies and human errors and it continues in the presence of sheer evil which alters, breaks or destroys each life it touches. The pure joy in my opinion is the fact that we don't get all of this message in the form of a melodramatic speech from one of the characters in the movie rather the movie leaves a narrative from which we decipher it's meaning.Beautiful.I give it 7/10 for thought provoking entertainment and raise it to 8/10 for staying true to it's subject without stretching itself in hope of winning any accolades.

Yes, I am biased, but he is definitely a sympathetic character in this film weaving a 1940's child killing to a current missing child case (grieving father well-portrayed by Jon Hamm/"Mad Men"). Hamm is also good here as he shows a different and more human side of his acting ability. In "Mad Men" he plays a slight sexist (apropos for that era, though).Lucas has three sons, Mark, Luke and John. The youngest child John is autistic (in the 1940's that was clearly a cardinal sin.). When Lucas' wife commits suicide and they are foreclosed on, he must hit the road to find any employment, and give his sons to in-laws to take care of them. His brother-in-law, Jonas is a nasty piece of work and refuses to take care of "the autistic one" John.Lucas finds construction work with a random group, one ("The Swede", played by Holt McCallany, and one portrayed by James Van Der Beek, nicknamed "diploma").The peripheral/current story of Hamm and his marital woes with Barbara are rather predictable, though we feel for him becoming obsessed with this 50 year old case of the murdered autistic child John.Without detailing the outcome, I will say there are some notable performances by Hamm and Lucas here, and the haunting story of missing and murdered children, and how society treats them.It is also a timely story, children in the U.S. are murdered and missing every day. Highly recommended. If you like this theme you may also like "The Dead Girl" an amazing film about a missing girl and how society treats disaffected people. 10/10.

At the end of the credits, I always read all the credits after every movie I watch because you learn things, was The Boy in The Box. I researched that and found out that there had been a murder of a small boy, 4 or 5, in rural PA back in 1957 who was found in a card board box by the side of a road. It has never been discovered who he was, and many detectives and others have tried solving the case over the years. He is known as America's unknown child. You can google the boy in the box to read more of this unsolved homicide. Tragic and sad. But after seeing the movie and reading about this case, it was closely related and interesting to see how the movie was loosely based on some of the facts of the real case. I thought the movie was well done.