Film Review: PRISONERS ★★★½☆☆

Prisoners is that rare nail biter thriller that wastes no time in firmly grabbing you by the throat and doesn't let go until its done with you nearly two and half hours later.

With a unforgiving plot that is sure to wreck havoc with any and every parent in its movie goer audience, when two six-year olds are kidnapped, to what lengths would you go to find them when the police's efforts do not turn up enough evidence to charge a likely prime suspect?

Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard star as the fathers of the pair of abducted girls, and are taken on a gripping emotional roller coaster ride over the course of the nine days in which the film is set. Jake Gyllenhaal as the dedicated but too straightforward cop on the case adds a lot to the complicated emotional fire that will leave you drained.

Jackman is extraordinary as the antagonized and distressed Keller Dover. He embodies a complex man put through the wringer and the horrendous toll resorting to the desperate measures will have on someone. He plays a full range of emotions from frantic panic to pained utter rage, to be-all end-all desperation. 

When he's not Wolverine, Jackman has enjoyed a varied career with his choice in roles. I've always felt his performance in the little seen meta sci-fi downer The Fountain was vastly underrated. That film may not have been everyone's cup of tea, Les Mis wasn't mine either, but it showcased the incredible acting chops Jackman keeps in his holster. In Prisoners he easily exceeds the whirlwind of gut wrenching emotions displayed in The Fountain. With his heavy sullen eyes, you feel like you are right there clinging to the anything and everything he needs to do in his obsessive mission to find his child.

Paul Dano easily slips into his role of Alex Jones, a mentally and emotionally challenged local who finds himself the first and easiest suspect in the abduction. No stranger to off kilter performance, Dano (There Will Be Blood, Looper) balances the creepy and the sympathetic all the while the plot thickens and morals are clearly left behind in the search for truth.

As the window to the audience's eyes, Gyllenhaal's Detective Loki, an oddball tattooed local lawman, shows little emotion towards the grieving parents' plights. While far from skimping on his detective duties, his cold public demeanor does little to ease the growing anxieties of anyone he comes in contact with during the twists and turns of the investigation.

While Jackman represents the part of you that reacts and does whatever is necessary, Maria Bello as Grace Dover puts in a great turn as the emotionally shattered mother left increasingly numbed every day her daughter is remains missing.

You could say the film greatly echoes the emotions wrought from 1996's Ransom starring Mel Gibson, but Prisoners is far darker than that film ever dared to go. In addition to the emotional performances, director of photography Roger Deakins plays a huge role in maintaining the film's relentless cloud of gloom. Deakins' consistent excellent work always speaks for itself and in this case is almost its own character in the film. The underlying mood set by the overcast days, rainy nights and dark unexplored locations give that much more weigh to the constant state of uneasiness.

Director Denis Villeneuve brings a lot to the table here. In addition to letting scenes to adequately and effectively breathe and his cast to deliver lines without cutting away to reverse reaction shots, he also makes great use of your fears of what is not revealed on screen. At moments where you are ready to look away, you are then not given a reason to. What you don't see is far more dreadful when left to your own imagination. I have no doubt what was in my head at crucial points was worse than any visual reveal that could have been made. At the other side of Ransom, Prisoners has a lot more in common with the sinister themes of a Seven-era David Fincher film, but rather plays its hand without the literal gruesome reveals and relies more on scant sound design and raw human reactive emotion.

Prisoners will keep you firmly on the edge of your seat from the start and leave you emotionally drained by its finish. The entire cast makes this thriller work, but it's Jackman's show giving a standout emotionally gripping performance that will be hard to ignore during awards season. It's a unforgettable pulse pounding ride to the end, even at two and half hours. I can't say I can comfortably recommend this to parents of young children given its effective execution of a Godawful nightmare scenario, but is without question the most riveting film I've seen all year.

Prisoners opens in theaters on September 20th.

REVIEW RATING: ★★★½☆☆
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo, Terrence Howard, Paul Dano, Viola Davis
Screenwriter: Aaron Guzikowski
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Rated: R
Running Time: 153 minutes

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