98% A Hijacking

All Critics (59) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (1)

To refuse to call A Hijacking a thriller is not to say it isn't thrilling, in a dryly cerebral way.

It's the second feature from the young writer-director Tobias Lindholm, and it showcases his gift for tightly focused stories told without an ounce of fat.

Lindholm doesn't present the film as a procedural for hostage negotiations because he knows too well that there are too many movable parts, too many things that can go wrong.

Methodical and tense ... has the feel of something based on real-life events ... boils down to an arresting portrait of two men, with different backgrounds and abilities, doing everything they can not to break.

We're impatient for action, any kind of action - but preferably the sort that involves a team of Navy SEALs, maybe led by Dwayne Johnson. Instead, we get something like a merger meeting.

Hand-held camerawork, so often a confounded nuisance, here makes the conditions on board the Rozen feel nauseatingly urgent.

When the gut-wrenching conclusion of A Hijacking comes in the form of a single, random act, it's only then you realize how far you've been pulled into its emotional core.

A Hijacking delivers all the thrills the title suggests, but in none of the places you'd expect them.

The danger never reaches the level of chaos, but the subtext and metaphor in the slow-moving humanistic commentary on the motivations and byproducts of capitalism make for an intriguing film.

A smart movie derived out of the small moments that collectively comprise the hostage experience, rather than grandiose gestures.

Lindholm's you-are-there docudrama works as a tense thriller, but themes of negotiation and the ability to empathize provide a rich subtext.

...slow, mostly talk, but tense and realistic...

The level of suspense in this riveting Danish thriller doesn't build in sweeping melodramatic fashion, but rather at a low-key simmer that emphasizes authentic character dynamics.

A Hijacking accomplishes a tricky task, generating tension through talk rather than action.

This absorbing chronicle of a hijacking in the Indian Ocean has the strengths of the best procedural dramas -- it assumes a distanced and objective tone and packs an emotional wallop.

Moment by moment we find ourselves wondering what will happen next...

Auteur Tobias Lindholm does a striking job in grabbing your attention and running with it as he succinctly tells the story of "A Hijacking."

A Hijacking is an absorbing, highly moving film that's lingered heavily on the mind for a couple of days now.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_hijacking/

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