Michael is kind of a quiet guy with an office job selling insurance, keeps to himself, has a six-year-old boy locked in a room in his basement whom he violates sexually every night after they eat dinner and clean up the kitchen. You know, ordinary.

Whenever one of these stories surfaces in the news I give it about one or two minutes to rattle around in my brain before I have to shut it down and never think about it again. What’s it like to hold a six-year-old captive in your basement for immoral purposes? Not something I want to dwell on very long.

But the film fest is all about going to movies that I might not ever consider watching otherwise, and I have to admit, this was a well-made movie. Well-written, well-acted, good cinemaphotography. I also have to admit that I admire the film’s makers for their decision to avoid going for an easy ending. Although the bad guy got what was coming to him, in a matter of speaking, the police didn’t break down the doors, no curious neighbor tipped off anybody, and there were no heroes to save the day. It started out with what appeared to be an ordinary guy, and it ended with the ordinary guy’s mother looking through the basement for some extra hefty bags. What happened to the boy? It would have been easy to answer that question with a tearful reunion scene, but this wasn’t an easy subject, so neither was the ending.