Prisoners: Review

PRISONERS

Director: Denis Villeneuve 

Stars: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano

Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller 

 It's Thanksgiving morning. Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), his wife, son and young daughter are going to eat a Thanksgiving Day meal with Franklin Birch (Terrance Howard) and his wife, and two daughters. Before the meal, the four kids go on a walk in the neighborhood, and a mysterious RV is parked outside a house. The young girls think it is very cool and start to play on it. After being pulled off it unwillingly by Keller's son, they head back to the house to feast on all the great food that is prepared for Thanksgiving. After the meal, the families are lounging, and the two young girls decide to go play outside, this time going without the guidance of their older siblings. A few hours pass, and the girls don’t return. Keller and Franklin set out to look for them. After Keller’s son tells him about the weird RV in the neighborhood, they call the police. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), a cop who has solved every case he has ever been assigned, is tasked to find the two little girls. After an arrest on Alex Jones (Paul Dano), the family thinks they can rest a little easier. However, no charges are made on Alex, and forty-eight hours later, he is released. Keller, who is distraught over his missing daughter, decides to take matters into his own hands, while detective Loki follows other leads he has come across.

Make sure to bring a jacket to this one. It's cold, and not just outside. Prisoners had this whole dark, wet, cold theme going on the whole time. For instance, it was raining for most of the film. Prisoners has really good acting throughout its entirety; I definitely would not be surprised to see Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal get nominated for their rolls this coming award season. Jackman really brought out the inner chaos of what a father would go through if something like this were to happen to his child. Gyllenhaal seemed like an icecold Brooklyn detective who had a lot of emotion invested in finding the two missing girls. The story was really well told; I was shivering on the edge of my seat the entire time. At times one may think that it takes a weird turn in to something you might not like but it all comes out to one hell of a ride. The score for Prisoners did not stand out to me as something that is making the scene more intense. It was the acting that really made me feel how suspenseful this movie really was. This is something that is very hard to do; not a lot of movies can pull this off. Argo, for example, pulled this off last year. Prisoners is definitely worth a watch, whether you choose to see it in a theater or rent it. Seeing it on TV one afternoon would definitely take away from the story.

8/10