Most critics find Ransom an effective thriller, and the praise lands first on Mel Gibson, whose performance as the desperate father is singled out by nearly every review that reaches a verdict. The early stretches draw the warmest notice: the build-up of tension, the tightly controlled suspense and the way the twists are parcelled out. Gary Sinise’s villain is also admired, with more than one critic crediting him for wry touches in a role that might have been flat.
The reservations gather around the second half. Several reviews find the script mechanistic, the focus diffuse and the final reel a let-down, and the Radio Times thinks Ron Howard’s direction unusually starchy for him. The spread is moderate rather than wide: most land somewhere between a grudging and a solid pass, with the Los Angeles Times the one outright dissenter, arguing that the shift into vigilante drama derails a film that had been working well. Two reviews offer no readable verdict.