It’s time for a pretty old thriller. This is a film I had never heard of before so it’s always fun to discover something new. The Yellow Canary is a film about a kidnapping and the main character deciding to go rogue. It’s a pretty classic plot and one that can be really fun as long as the execution is good. I would say that the film handles it all pretty well so you should be on the edge of your seat.

The film starts off by introducing us to Andy who is a world famous singer. He’s won all kinds of awards and is ridiculously wealthy. Unfortunately he traded in his morals a long time ago and nowadays he greatly enjoys just indulging in every pleasure. He cheats on his wife, never visits his son, etc. Well one day his son is kidnapped and now Andy has to find the culprit before anything terrible happens. The randomer is stringing Andy along a lot and the cops say this is probably personal but aren’t offering a whole lot of help. The cops mean well but are just out of their depth. Andy will have to take some big swings here.

Now it is a bold approach to have Andy be so unlikable right from the start. Some characters might be a bit arrogant or something but the film goes out of its way to say that this guy has been completely corrupted by the money. I’d even say that a reoccurring theme of the movie is about how all of your friends are fake when you’re rich. In one way or another each of his friends tend to stab him in the back. I’d say at least Andy’s business partners seemed solid and if anything it was Andy who was abusing them the whole time.

Throughout the film Andy does do his best to find his kid, but that doesn’t automatically make him a good character. It just means that this was something super personal and he was going to solve the problem. Perhaps now that he has lost a lot of money by the end of the film he will readdress the priorities in his life. Andy may end up being a good character but I can’t really assume that just from the ending here. You’ll obviously still root for him over the kidnapper though.

Andy’s wife Lissa is upset at Andy the whole film but that’s really justified. I just wish she was able to keep it together a bit more when they were working on saving the kid. For example at one point she is able to grab her son but then panics about how she can’t leave Andy along when the villains are approaching. If Lissa had her way then they all would have been swarmed and defeated. She just seemed to lack a general sense of awareness for danger and I never like it when characters fall to pieces like that. It is unfortunately realistic but doesn’t make the whole thing any better.

As for the police detective Bonner, he is one of those characters who sounds good until you really think about it. He gives all of the textbook advice on not letting the kidnapper get what he wants and all that but has no plan beyond this. Bonner essentially tells Andy to sacrifice his kid to prevent copycat kidnappings. Yes, that is good advice for society but it’s not something that just about any father is going to listen to. It would just sound rather absurd on its face. Bonner is quick to deflect when Andy asks how often the strategy actually saves the kid. It’s clear that Andy will have to do this on his own.

Bake is constantly playing the victim card as he tells Andy to stop being a terrible person. The advice falls on deaf ears though and it really doesn’t hit because Bake continues to work for the guy. If Bake decided to quit that would be one thing but the longer he stays at the job then it makes the moral convictions fall flat. Lissa even calls him out on this and Bake just talks about how he is trapped. We see that he even steals money from Andy as the film goes on so that makes him look even worse. I really didn’t have anything all that positive to say about the guy. He’s easily one of the weakest characters.

Then you have Hub who is always ready to help but tends to take a violent twist on it. The guy is rather unhinged and seems to even enjoy the violence. You always want to be careful with someone like that around. While watching the film you have to try and figure out who the kidnapper is. Naturally he might not even be one of these immediate characters and could be a complete stranger. You’ll really have to go through the film to find out.

I’d say another solid thing about the film is that there aren’t many big leaps of logic for you to follow. The main characters didn’t even really make a mistake when it came to the kid being kidnapped. There was effectively nothing they could have done and then from there it made sense to follow the kidnapper’s instructions until they could find an avenue of attack. The most realistic part here may have even been that the heroes completely had no leads until the villain slipped up. His own arrogance was his downfall here.

The climax was also really solid. I was glad that one character wasn’t bluffing because that would have been a supremely terrible look. When your kid is taken, it’s naturally going to be time for extreme actions and I would expect you to be locked and loaded. There was no hesitation when it counted and it made the villain’s final speech that much more enjoyable. I definitely like it when the villain thinks he is completely invincible and about to claim victory when he’s actually delusional by that point.

Overall, I had a good time here. Andy is definitely not someone who is likable but you still want the kid to be okay so you’re forced to root for him via proxy. The movie keeps up a tense atmosphere throughout and the pacing is on point. The body count is even a bit higher than I was expecting. I don’t know why, but I just assumed there wouldn’t be much death or anything here. Maybe it’s just the way the film was playing out? It felt tense but in a more slow burn kind of way where the heroes would eventually stop the kidnapper before anyone would really have to die for it. By the second death, you quickly realize that this is not that kind of film. This one of those films that just feels like a really well rounded watch all the way through. As long as you enjoy these kind of retro thrillers then you should have a good time here.

Overall 7/10