Tony This film draws you in with characters and events like any good crime mystery novel would. The cast are excellent in their portrayals. If you don't know the story it's based on you'll probably figure it out soon on, or maybe see something of the dreaded red herring. Just watch it and enjoy storytelling that doesn't need SFX let alone CGI.

Lisa11171 What can I say? I watch this movie every time it comes on TV and have been since 1983. It tugs at your heart strings and the ending will leave you sobbing like a baby out of joy. Kate Nelligan turns in an excellent performance as the distraught mother and Judd Hirsch is just as good as an overworked cop who can't resist trying to help. Stockard Channing is very convincing as the best friend who is frustrated by mom's refusal to believe her child will never be seen again. This movie stands the test of time and I will continue to watch it whenever it plays on TV. HBO has been running it quite frequently lately and the ending alone makes it work rewatching. Highly recommended!!

dtucker86 Kate Nelligan and Judd Hirsch both give outstanding performances as the mother of a missing child and the detective determined to find him. I felt so bad for this poor woman when her little boy disappeared. Nelligan wonderfully conveys this mother's anguish and you feel angry on her behalf when they question her about her being the guilty party! Judd Hirsch had been nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role in Ordinary People and he proves here that it wasn't a lucky fluke. He plays a man who is a tough, professional police officer, but at the same time he still has a caring heart and feels for this poor mother. He plays a tough sob with his heart on his sleeve so wonderfully. It is a tribute to these two fine actors that they make their characters seem so real that your heart aches for them. Actually, there are many children who vanish in the United States every year, most of these are runaways or children who are abducted by non-custodial parents. "Stranger" abductions are really very rare, but they are the most heartbreaking and tragic, like Adam Walsh's abduction. This film SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT, had an ending that was one of the happiest that I have ever seen in a movie. I saw Without A Trace two decades ago and I still remember how I felt like rejoicing like a sinner in church when Alex was found and they brought him home! I almost cried because I only wish that real life could be like this and that all abducted children could return home. I wanted to point out that this movie is based on a real life child abduction that has not had a happy ending at all. In May of 1979, a little boy in New York named Etan Patz left to go to his bus stop to go to school and disappeared without a trace. He was finally declared legally dead a few years ago. Many people have credited the disappearance of Etan Patz with awakening people to the plight of missing children.

DaveTheNovelist (WriterDave) It's one of those Saturday nights you decided not to go out to the bar. It's near midnight and you're flipping through the pay cable stations because you don't care to watch another rerun of Saturday Night Live. You come across a movie from the early 80's that sounds like a really bad TV movie. (A side note, I believe the true story that inspired this film also inspired a god-awful TV movie starring Christopher Reeve that I caught on Lifetime one Sunday afternoon while I was nursing a hang-over). Instead, 'Without a Trace' turns out to be one of those hidden gems you come across at just such odd times once in a blue moon. It's one of those films that makes you wonder how many other 'lost classics' are lurking out there amongst the overbearing weight of the tripe Hollywood typically puts out.Kate Nelligan and Judd Hirsch deliver Oscar-caliber performances as the mother who won't accept her son is gone and the hardworking detective who takes a personal interest in the frustrating kidnapping case. This is one of those films that gives us an intimate look at one person's loss, how it effects those around them, and also provides a touching glimpse into the family of a cop trying to recover that person's loss. This was producer Stanley Jaffe's first and only foray into directing, and it's a shame, since he clearly delivered the goods here. There are two great scenes that play both as thrilling and heartbreaking that showcase just how capable and beautifully understated a director Jaffe was:1. The night after the six-year old is kidnapped, the camera pans up from his discarded pajama top lying on the bathroom floor to his mother (Nelligan) having her first breakdown in the bathtub. It's a wonderful scene that is all at once chilling, gut-wrenching, and emotional resonant. 2. Nelligan retires to her bedroom and turns out all the lights. Everything is silent. All the audience sees is pitch black. It seems like this unfathomably dark silence could last forever. We the audience are put on the edge of our seats. Then the silence in broken. Nelligan begins to pray.This is true tear jerker that I believe has probably been dismissed over the years because of the alleged all too happy 'Hollywood' ending that was tacked on. The true story that inspired this film didn't end so happily, but this was never meant to be a documentary. This is a movie that is designed to give people (especially parents) a sense of hope in a world gone mad, and I suspect it would especially connect with audiences today in the wake of all the high profile child abduction cases of late (i.e. the Smart case). The ending is beautifully executed and truly uplifting, and had the film not ended this way, the film would've been one of the bleakest, most depressing films ever made, and I fear I would've not been able to sleep that night. We all know how tragically things could've ended. All we need to do is look at the real world to see that and get depressed. This movie took a chance and decided to give us hope, and that is neither untrue or contrived, that is a stroke of genius.When all is said and done, 'Without a Trace' is a great movie that deserves to be uttered in the same breath as 'Kramer vs. Kramer' and 'Ordinary People.' It makes more recent kidnap flicks (like Ron Howard's egregious thriller 'Ransom', and the pitifully hokey 'The Deep End of the Ocean') come across as terribly manipulative and untrue. Not to be missed. (Another side note: Where's the DVD? They seem to put every piece of crap ever produced on DVD these days, so why not this, something that is actually good and worthwhile and would connect deeply with audiences?)