This movie was so bad I had to turn it off.

Yeah it was pretty overrated. 5.3/10 for me. The highway scene ruined the film.

Because your tastes aren't universal.

I thought it was average, not terrible but not nearly as good as Ford’s debut.

It was OK. The highway scene was difficult to watch because you knew exactly what was going to happen. I think Gyllenhaal's and Shannon's acting were great throughout. Adam's doesn't give much of a performance although it's not like there was much for her to work with. I thought it was going to turn into the Last House on the Left by the end. Overall, it was just OK, 5 or 6 out of 10.

I have to agree with most of the posters in here. It's okay...

It has some unique concepts, like having a story within the story, but I think it was poorly executed.

The novel story was predictable and not very well acted by Gyllenhaal or it just didn't seem like he fit the movie that well. The rest of the cast did pretty good with Michal Shannon being the "star" of the show. Amy was also pretty good as usual but Shannon stole the show for the most part.

It reminded me of two other films, Breakdown and that horror film The Neon Demon which was released in the same year as this. Breakdown is that Kurt Russell film that revolves around a man's wife getting kidnapped and held for ransom. I don't know, it just felt similar to this movie. And Neon Demon used very similar color schemes. Both films make good use of color.

Anyhow, it's a 6.0 out of 10. I would imagine that the book is better than this... I might have to read it someday.