BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

Tom Mullen is one of those bucaneer billionaires who, like the robber barons of yore, command the outraged concern of economic moralists and the titillated attention of the media, ever eager to gossip about the rich and infamous. Think Donald Trump or Bill Gates, or some heroically glamorized combination of the two--after all, Mel Gibson plays Tom in Ransom--and you've got the good idea animating this movie.

Working off an old (1955) film of the same title, writers Richard Price and Alexander Ignon have imagined this tough artisan of the deal (he built a major airline from scratch) confronting an equally smart and ruthless kidnapper (Gary Sinise) and his dangerously fractious gang. At stake: the life of Tom's cruelly abducted son. The ransom: $2 million. Tom's wife (Rene Russo), the FBI man in charge of the case (Delroy Lindo) and everybody else involved, with conventional wisdom at their command, recommend paying up. In 7 out of 10 cases, the G-man tells Tom, this leads to the child's return. These odds, however, are obviously less than certain. And after a couple of close, sadistic encounters with the criminals, Tom becomes convinced they have no intention of returning his son alive. Therefore, he decides to follow his instincts. Which, of course, lead straight to the jugular.

Hey, this is a deal like almost any other, isn't it? So what would Tom do if he were confronting a clever, intractable opponent across a workaday bargaining table? Why, storm out of the room of course, shouting that the negotiations were concluded. In this case Tom goes on television and angrily informs the kidnappers that he is going to post the $2 million as a reward for their apprehension.

This is just the kind of entrepreneurial boldness that makes us such avid readers of the biographies and autobiographies of people who get rich quick, and one wonders why it has taken Hollywood so long to convert such types from shadowy antagonist--their usual role in thrillers--to shiny protagonist. One's next thought, of course, is the hope that Ransom does not signal the beginning of a trend.

That's not meant as criticism of this film. Its major sin--a certain ineluctable improbability--is pretty much offset by the moments of winsome humanity Gibson finds for his freebooter; by the rich, nicely tuned portrayals of the other actors; and by director Ron Howard's smoothly professional mastery of yet another genre that is new to him. Nevertheless, as a matter of social policy, limits should probably be set on our intake of Tom Mullens clones. His real-life models don't need any more good publicity. And they are rarely as cute as Mel Gibson.

--By Richard Schickel