I love thrillers. With one caveat: it needs to have a satisfying/good ending. In other words, no dead children. Also, it would be great if pretty much NOBODY I like gets killed. And the bad guys get caught. Or, in the case of "Prisoners," the evil, wicked--ok, wait. I won't spoil it for you. Just. OH. This movie.

It's about two girls who go missing on Thanksgiving and the lengths to which their fathers will go to find them.

I bit my nails so hard I had to schedule a manicure. I'm not kidding. I cracked my fake nails on this movie. Instead of giving it four stars, I'm just giving it four nails. Because wow. I was on the edge of my seat the ENTIRE TIME. And talking a mile a minute.

If you're one of those people who need Absolute Golden Silence to watch a movie? You do NOT want to watch a movie with me. Movies, you see, are mere springboards to all kinds of conversations--conversations I'm having with the characters, see. Like they can totally hear me.

Except I call the characters by the actor's name: "HUGH JACKMAN! YES! TAKE YOUR GUN! GO! GO! GO, HUGH JACKMAN, GO!" And then: "OMG, Hugh Jackman. You're a total prepper. OMG. Look at your basement all organized and stuff? And you have a preppers' checklist? I like you, Hugh Jackman."

And then I was yelling at Jake Gyllenhaal to please, OMG, do NOT go down there! Oh, he went there. OMG, HE TOTALLY WENT...AND OH! SNAAAKES!!! OMG!!!

Of course, this movie required all kinds of deep philosophical conversations with my husband about how far we would go if one of our children, GOD FORBID, ever got kidnapped. We mutually decided that we would NOT STOP until we found our babies. Also, I would HUNT DOWN the sicko who did this, so HELP ME GOD I will not stand idly by!!!!

My point is, if you're sick of Christmas movies already--try Prisoners. It just came out on OnDemand. Not sure if it's on Netflix yet? But wowza. Good ending! YAY. Thrilling. YAY!

And I wanna know: if your child went missing (which, I cannot.even.imagine the horror--the absolute horror that would be and how does one deal with that?) what do you DO? How far do you go? How do you manage day after day?

OK, and on a serious note: I sort of felt guilty watching this movie. I mean. Maybe the only reason I can watch it is because this ISN'T my story? It's NOT personally traumatic to me? How do parents who've experienced something like this feel about movies/entertainment that is based on their direct horrible experience?

What do you think? How far would you go to save your child (if you knew something and the police weren't following up on it)? And are movies like this mere entertainment or are they also helpful? Maybe the one redemptive quality about this is that movies like this make me want to HAVE the conversation about missing kids and FIND WAYS to help?