Effective kidnap thriller, even if some of its effect is achieved by cheating. And even if, too, some of the effect is subjected to insufficient elucidation. And even if, in any case, the total effect is cheap and empty. For all that, once we get over the rocky start (the Vertigo-esque prologue is overscaled, and it's impossible to believe the kidnapper's latex mask could have fooled anyone for two years when it can't fool us for two seconds), the movie is not at all taxing to sit through -- all the way through the cast credits in which one role is identified as "Potentially Evil Guy on Train." The only point of connection to the dreadful Kiss the Girls (1997) is to its one good point, the cogitative visage of Morgan Freeman, repeating his role as forensic psychologist Alex Cross, from the James Patterson series of detective novels. Some may feel that Monica Potter -- the poor man's, or the penny-pinching movie producer's, Julia Roberts -- is a step down from Ashley Judd as the sidekick, but in compensation she requires less currying and cosseting. In Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors, The Edge), the movie has a defter director than Gary Fleder. And Jerry Goldsmith's minatory music is unintrusively helpful. With Michael Wincott, Penelope Ann Miller, Michael Moriarty. (2001) — Duncan Shepherd