What did you expect your day to be like when you woke up this morning?

Maybe you thought you'd get some coffee and go to work, then punch a clock, answer some calls, maybe spill your lunch on your shirt, punch the clock again, then go home to the wife and kids to start the whole thing over again tomorrow? That's what New York City subway dispatcher Walter Garber was probably thinking. But today he's wrong.

A mastermind felon named Ryder has just been released from prison. And he has an entirely different plan for Garber's day. Actually, he has plans for the whole city—starting with the 19 hostages he and his three thuggish partners seize on subway train Pelham 1 2 3. All he wants, Ryder claims, is $10 million dollars, delivered in one hour ... or he'll start killing people. As chance would have it, Walter Garber is the dispatcher Ryder first contacts from the hijacked train.

Garber knows he's out of his depth, and a professional hostage negotiator is soon brought in. It even looks as if Garber's workday might end a bit early, given the nature of the crisis. Ryder, however, likes Garber. And having quickly developed what he considers a kind of cosmic connection with the "average Joe" dispatcher, the hijacker demands that Garber stay. It's "fate" that's brought them together, he says.

Minute by minute, Ryder's trust in Garber grows, and he unconsciously shares key pieces of information regarding his identity. Meanwhile, the police scramble to figure out who the hijacker really is—and how to thwart his plans and save the hostages aboard Pelham 1 2 3. But the hour is ticking away. And Ryder charges a hefty late fee of one dead hostage for every minute his demands aren't met.

:: Review
I overheard a couple of people talking about this film after its initial screening:

"That's the best movie I've seen in ages," one woman gushed to her friend (and thus to the whole group). "Powerful. Action. A great plot. And I love it when people are redeemed." Two or three others nodded in agreement.

I, however, remain a bit more skeptical, especially when it came to what the movie had to say about redemption.

Garber's life seems overshadowed by his crime of accepting the bribe. Because of this, he feels his colleagues' disdain and distrust, and the embarrassment of being demoted to a lowly dispatcher—especially after having worked his way up through the ranks. Self-confidence has been replaced by timidity, insecurity and an almost palpable sense of shame. So when he tries to redeem himself through his heroic actions, we cheer.

But are his intentions solely to save the hostages or to atone for himself, too? Even Ryder, who threatens Garber's life in the subway car, laughingly says, "You thought you'd be redeemed, didn't you?" What does redemption look like—what should it look like—especially when the main character is so desperately in need of it? And how do we respond to demonstrably wicked people who co-opt confused God-talk and spiritual sounding ideas to justify their depravity?

These are some of questions The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 raises. They're good questions. And because movie-watching is such a subjective experience, they could probably be answered in different ways.

But there's a significant fly in the would-be conversation-starter ointment here. A story that could have been a thought-provoking actioner gets utterly derailed by the volume of visceral violence on the tracks—bullets, blood, brains, executions—not to mention a subway car full of harsh profanity.

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