Prisoners (***)

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Terence Howard, Paul Dano, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo, Dylan Minette

Seen: October 25^th 2013

*** Out of ****

Prisoners might be one of the darkest movies I’ve ever seen to still truly entertain me. It talks to all of us on a visceral and vicarious level, while telling a very well-written story in a darkly enthralling way. What would you do if your children were kidnapped? How far would you go to try to get them back? Where or when would your moral stance get in the way of doing whatever it takes to protect/find them? Prisoners tries to answer some of these questions and takes the viewer into some dark territory while doing so.

Keller Dover (Jackman) and his wife Grace have two kids, Ralph (Minette) and Anna. They live just up the street from their best friends Franklyn (Howard) and Nancy (Davis) Birch, who also have two children, Eliza and Joy. Ralph and Eliza are about the same age, teenagers, while Anna and Joy are two little girls. When the two families gather at the Birch’s house for Thanksgiving, everything seems fine and the families enjoy the company. Ralph and Eliza watch TV in the basement while Anna and Joy play around like little girls do. When Anna and Joy ask to go to the Dover’s house, everyone thinks someone else is supervising them, and some time later the families realise that the girls are missing. They start searching but to no avail, and it becomes clear that they have been kidnapped.

They find out that there was an old RV in the neighbourhood, and that the girls were playing near it. The RV belongs to Alex Jones (Dano), and when the police, led by Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) approach it, Jones attempts escape but is captured. Jones is however revealed to be developmentally disabled, and when nothing more can be found, he is released into the custody of his aunt, Holly (Leo). Keller assaults Jones outside the police station, and Jones whispers in Keller’s ear that “They didn’t cry until I left them”, but no one else hears this. Keller is driven further into madness and desperation by this, and he manages to kidnap Jones – locking him up in a deserted apartment block where he tortures him for more information. The revelations that follow make for some tense cinema, and it takes the viewer to unexpected places and brings about revelations that will make your skin crawl.

Prisoners is extremely dark fare, and will not be to everyone’s taste. It is however very good, with great acting almost across the board, but especially from Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. Jackman faithfully portrays a broken father desperate to rescue his daughter, and Gyllenhaal is just as good as the equally desperate Detective Loki. Maria Bello does little other than cry the entire movie though, and adds little to the story. The dark tone of the movie seeps into your pores, and you will probably be near exhausted at the end, but the ride is brilliantly made and expertly told, and the slightly week ending does little to distract from the power and emotional complexity en route to that moment when the screen goes black.