---
title: "Stolen"
year: 2009
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/stolen"
fi1m_id: "stolen"
imdb_id: "tt1139282"
tmdb_id: 38850
wikidata_id: "Q3973807"
fi1m_score: 40
critics_score: 38
critics_reviews: 5
published: "2026-10-10T19:01:02.133598+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-10T19:01:02.703001+00:00"
region: "EC"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Stolen (2009)

Directed by Anders Anderson · 1h 37m · Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

## Identity

Stolen

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/stolen
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** stolen
- **IMDb ID:** tt1139282
- **TMDB ID:** 38850
- **Wikidata ID:** Q3973807
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139282/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/38850, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3973807

**Fi1m score: 40** · Critics 38 (early) from 5 reviews

*In a sentence:* Two fathers, two decades, one box of bones, and you will have worked it out before Jon Hamm has finished his first coffee

> Jon Hamm does what he can as a detective who cannot let go, and Josh Lucas does more as a father who cannot cope. Anders Anderson’s thriller runs the two stories side by side towards an answer you will have guessed by the half-hour.

## Synopsis

Tom Adkins Sr. (Jon Hamm) is a detective haunted by his son’s disappearance. His wife Barbara (Rhona Mitra) wants him home; he wants the case. Then a construction crew digs up a wooden box with the bones of a boy inside, dead some fifty years, and Tom takes it as a message meant for him. In 1958, Matthew Wakefield (Josh Lucas), a father on his own with no money and a son, John (Jimmy Bennett), who does not think the way other boys do, takes work on a building site among men with no patience for the boy. A waitress, Sally Ann (Jessica Chastain), is kind to them both. The film cuts between the two fathers until the box starts to explain itself.

## Review

*Stolen*, which has also gone out under the title *Stolen Lives*, is a mystery with two clocks running. In the present, Tom Adkins Sr. (Jon Hamm) is a detective haunted by his son’s disappearance, and he has let his marriage to Barbara (Rhona Mitra) go cold in the process. In 1958, Matthew Wakefield (Josh Lucas) is a father with no money, no wife and a son, John (Jimmy Bennett), who does not think the way other boys do. A box of bones dug out of a building site joins the two. Anders Anderson directs from a script by Glenn Taranto, and the whole thing runs 97 minutes, which is the right length for a film with one idea.

The 1958 half is the better half, and not by a little. Lucas plays Matthew as a man who is tired all the way down, who loves the boy and cannot always stand him, and Bennett gives John a stillness that makes the men around him uneasy. Jessica Chastain, as the waitress Sally Ann, has a handful of scenes and makes a person out of them. Jennifer Spence’s production design keeps the period to a boarding house, a diner and a raw building site, and Lisa Norcia dresses everyone in worn work shirts and one good dress, which is about the right amount of 1958 for a film of this size.

We will own that one scene got us. Matthew and John are alone in a rented room with nowhere to go next, the father talking and the boy not answering, and Lucas plays it without raising his voice. For a minute the film is about something true, which is how hard it is to be the only person responsible for a child the world has no room for. We felt that, and we had not expected to. Then the film cut back to the present and the feeling went with it.

The present is where the trouble is. Hamm is given one note, the man who cannot let go, and he plays it with the stillness he is known for, but Taranto’s script never gives him a second note to set against it. Barbara exists to tell him to come home. Jonas (Michael Cudlitz) exists to tell him to drop the case. Rose Montgomery (Morena Baccarin) exists to hand him a piece of the past. Andy Steinman lights these scenes flat and blue-grey, every office and kitchen the same, and after a while we could not tell one room from another, which we do not think was the plan.

The cutting does the real damage. Gary Mau goes back and forth between the decades with such regularity, a scene of Tom and then a scene of Matthew and then a scene of Tom, that the film tells you the two stories are one story long before it means to. Trevor Morris’s score underlines every crossing with strings, so that each time a character pauses we are warned something sad is coming. By the half-hour we had a theory. By the hour we were waiting for the film to catch up with it, and when it did we were not surprised, and then we were a little cross at having been asked to wait.

James Van Der Beek turns up in the 1958 half as a drifter the credits call Diploma / Roggiani, with a soft voice and an interest in the boy, and the way the film handles him tells you how it thinks: he is there to be looked at and worried about. We will not say more than that. We will say that the solution, when it arrives, does not bear the weight of two timelines, and that the film seems to know this, because it hurries through it.

The better films in this line, the ones about fathers and missing children, keep their secret until the end and then make the secret hurt. [*Mystic River*](https://film.one/film/mystic-river) does it. *The Pledge* does it by refusing to give one. This film gives its secret away by accident, through the rhythm of its own editing, and has nothing to put in its place.

If Lucas and a quiet boy on a building site in 1958 sounds like an evening, there is a decent hour of a different film in here. Watch it for that, and keep your theory to yourself; the film will get there in its own time.

*Fi1m score 40, published 10 October 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is Stolen worth watching?**

*Stolen* is not worth an evening for most people, and we scored it 40. Josh Lucas and Jimmy Bennett make the 1958 half a decent hour on its own, but the present-day story gives Jon Hamm one note, and the editing hands you the solution by the half-hour. Watch it only if a tired father and a quiet boy on a building site is enough.

**How long is Stolen, and what is it rated?**

*Stolen* runs 1h 37m. It is a crime and drama film.

**Where can I watch Stolen in Ecuador?**

*Stolen* is not on any streaming or rental service in Ecuador at the moment. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Stolen, and is it suitable for children?**

*Stolen* has no UK certificate and is rated R in America, which means it is for adults rather than children. It is about a missing child and a box of a boy's bones, and a drifter in the 1958 half takes an interest in the boy that the film means you to worry about. It is grim rather than frightening, and not for younger teenagers.

**What should I watch after Stolen?**

After *Stolen*, try [*Mystic River*](https://film.one/film/mystic-river) (2003, Fi1m 82): A missing child, three fathers, and a solution the film makes you dread rather than guess. Then [*The Vanishing*](https://film.one/film/the-vanishing) (1988, Fi1m 88): A man searches for a missing woman and finds the answer is worse than not knowing; and [*Memories of Murder*](https://film.one/film/memories-of-murder) (2003, Fi1m 91): Korean detectives, a rural serial case, and a mystery honest enough to admit defeat.

### Reviews we read (5)

- **The AV Club**, Noel Murray (C): Murray finds the mystery mildly engaging but ultimately predictable. He faults the direction for crude, functional visuals and performances pitched too high. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/stolen-1798164516)
- **Slant Magazine**, Glenn Heath Jr. (2/5): The critic finds the film an unforgivably predictable, flimsy genre hybrid. He singles out its uninspired direction and surface-level characters as key weaknesses. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/stolen-dvd/)
- **Time Out** (2/5): The two-star rating indicates a negative verdict, with Jon Hamm’s performance offering limited consolation. The review singles out his portrayal of a workaholic cop haunted by his son’s disappearance. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/stolen)
- **Variety**, Jordan Mintzer (30/100, inferred): Mintzer finds the thriller technically polished but increasingly dull and uninspired. He singles out its textbook filmmaking and sappy score as shortcomings that fail to create excitement or emotion. [Read](https://variety.com/2009/film/markets-festivals/stolen-lives-1200474930/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, The Associated Press (25/100, inferred): The critic finds the thriller dull and unable to bring its two stories together. They single out the unconvincing solution to the mysteries as a key weakness. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/stolen-film-review-29370/)

## Details

- **Director:** Anders Anderson
- **Director:** Anders Anderson
- **Writer:** Glenn Taranto
- **Cinematography:** Andy Steinman
- **Editor:** Gary Mau
- **Music:** Trevor Morris
- **Production design:** Jennifer Spence
- **Costume design:** Lisa Norcia
- **Cast:** Jon Hamm as Tom Adkins Sr.; Josh Lucas as Matthew Wakefield; Rhona Mitra as Barbara; James Van Der Beek as Diploma / Roggiani; Jessica Chastain as Sally Ann; Joanna Cassidy as Lea Adkins; Jimmy Bennett as John; Morena Baccarin as Rose Montgomery
- **Runtime:** 1h 37m
- **First release (the US):** 10 October 2009
- **Genres:** Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- **Budget:** $2 million
- **Box office:** $7,306

## Where to watch in Ecuador

Not streaming, renting or buying in Ecuador at the last check.

## If you liked this

- *Mystic River* (2003), Fi1m 82: A missing child, three fathers, and a solution the film makes you dread rather than guess. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/mystic-river.md)
- *The Vanishing* (1988), Fi1m 88: A man searches for a missing woman and finds the answer is worse than not knowing. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-vanishing.md)
- *Memories of Murder* (2003), Fi1m 91: Korean detectives, a rural serial case, and a mystery honest enough to admit defeat. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/memories-of-murder.md)
- *The Pledge* (2001): Jack Nicholson promises a mother he will find her daughter’s killer and cannot stop.
- *Lantana* (2001), Fi1m 78: Four Sydney marriages and one disappearance; the people matter more than the mystery. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/lantana.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/stolen