Stolen

New York Observer Rex Reed

Not a masterpiece, perhaps, but technically polished, with inspired performances and enough suspense that by the time Mr. Hamm found the redemption that freed him from his own demons, I was so wired I needed a Valium.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

Stolen is mildly engaging, inasmuch as it poses a riddle and makes the audience wait for the answer, in the classic mystery mode.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

James Van Der Beek plays the same suspect over a 50-year period, sporting some of the worst old-age makeup in memory in the present-day sequences.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

This gravely serious drama is as insular as a tomb with Muzak. It takes a particularly heavy hand to make us numb to the abduction of two children, but that's the effect of the wall-to-wall music and earnestly dour performances.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Plays like a middling episode of “Law & Order: SVU,” drawn out an extra half-hour and embellished with pretentious literary and cinematic flourishes.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

No one is able to make much of the disposable script, but Hamm is so limited by the period trappings that it seems as if he simply wandered onto the wrong set.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Hamm is unable to do much with his underwritten role, and the present-day sequences don't really hold interest.

Variety Jordan Mintzer

A technically polished thriller marred by textbook filmmaking that grows increasingly dull as the plot wears on.

Time Out New York Kevin B. Lee

Stolen’s major flaws result from writer Glenn Taranto’s screenplay, which keeps piling on plot twists at the expense of anything resembling character development.

Village Voice Melissa Anderson

It's uncertain whether or not Taranto and debuting helmer Anders Anderson looked at the "Law & Order: SVU" and "Cold Case" episodes that also used the crime as a plot thread; the sub-televisual incompetence of their film suggests not.

Los Angeles Times Mark Olsen

A leaden murder mystery with a clunky structure that swings back and forth between 1958 and 2008, Stolen wastes the talents of a reasonably good cast.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's a toss-up as to what's the worse sin in this graceless piece of tragedy porn.