Brief Story Line
Polly Huff (Ana Sophia Heger - Life in Pieces TV series etc) was a 9 year old kid who after waiting for a while at school, was finally picked up by her father Nate McClusky (Taron Egerton - Carry-On, Kingsman: The Golden Circle etc). Although she felt uneasy as Nate was just released from prison, Polly still went along with him. It was later revealed that Nate had an altercation with the white supremacist gang and his family including Polly was put on hit list.
Meanwhile Detective Park (Rob Yang - The Menu, Succession TV series etc) who was assigned the case was trying to capture Nate as he was suspected for double homicide and kidnapping of Polly. While trying to evade the police, Nate and Polly were also chased by Sheriff Houser (John Carroll Lynch - Ballard TV series, The Highwaymen etc) and his team.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I am not too sure where I read about this movie before, but I remembered the headline was something about Taron Egerton gotten praise for his role here. In addition to that, I also thought the film would be intense with a lot of chasing and full of action which made me interested. As I started watching, I immediately got the feeling that it would not be the case. From the beginning, it had a dark and rather gloomy tone which was enhanced when Polly met with Nate. And the drama was also felt quite strongly as Polly began to warm up to her father, despite her shock of seeing the news about him.
As the story progressed, we got to see the bond of Polly and Nate became stronger while the stake felt higher with more information revealed about the vicious nature of the gang that Nate offended (even though it was not shown explicitly but we could still read between the line). Funny thing was not long after I watch this, I could already foresee that the movie's ending was inevitable. And it proved to be correct, although I was still surprised of the way the final third was done.
This film was adapted from 2017 novel of the same title written by Jordan Harper who also wrote the screenplay with Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski (the duo who wrote Siren, The Night House etc). It was directed by Nick Rowland (Calm with Horses, Floodlights etc) and was very well received by critics. From what I read, not only Taron Egerton who was praised but also the young child actor Ana Sophia Heger. I personally thought their performance was worthy of the admiration including their convincing on-screen father daughter relationship, although few times I was a bit bothered by the screaming (reminded me of Dakota Fanning in War of the Worlds). However aside from those, I agreed with the critics comments.
The movie actually had a limited release in the US theaters back in August 2025 and several other countries but not in Indonesia. So it was a rare chance for us to watch this as it was acquired and released by Prime Video. The duration of the film was around 2 hours which included very long closing credits and not surprisingly without mid or post end credit scene. Aside from those names above, there were support cast of Odessa A'zion (Until Dawn etc) as Nate's old friend Charlotte, David Lyons (The Beast in Me TV series etc) as Detective Park's partner Jimmy and very few others in minor capacity.
Overall this was indeed a gritty grounded thriller as critics commented. It was not exactly what I had in mind when I decided to watch this, though I was not too disappointed by it. In general I liked the film's story and the acting but the movie was a bit too dark for me personally. I could obviously understand the appeal for critics and I had no objection on their views either. So if you are interested in this kind of movie, you are very welcome to try it. However you might want to avoid if you are hoping for a light hearted, crowd pleasing and full action type. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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