Prisoners

Prisoners is a 2013 thriller film by Dennis Villeneuve, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. The film is about two friends whose children are abducted, and the attempt to find them. The supporting cast is filled out by Viola Davis, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo and Paul Dano. The film details the day before and the week after the girls are taken. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a police detective, who is charged with finding the missing girls, and Hugh Jackman plays one of the girls father who feels an intense guilt for being partially responsible, and who takes the law into his own hands.

The film is a thriller, and thus the first part of the movie is highly strung, tense and atmospheric. Unfortunately the second half of the film can't match up, and thus overall the film feels overlong, bloated and self indulgent. I don't think ive ever sceen a film be so good in it's first half, only to become unfortunate going into the final act, Prisoners shuns the traditional three act structure for a laborious 5 act structure. Unfortunately the last 2 acts feel completely unnecessary, as the plot has already been mostly tied up, and the film ends with a ridiculous plot twist.

The films dialogue is mostly rather stilted, and despite a good plot the films dialogue is at times rather painful. Despite this the film does feature some quality performances, the films leads are solid, and Jackman gives an emotional and subtle performance as a man dealing with grief and guilt. Jyllenhaal is solid too, however both of the films leads are outshone by Paul Dano as  Alex Jones, a complex young man with severe developmental problems and the mental age of a ten year old, Dano's performance is understated and believable.

The film deals mainly with themes of guilt, and duty. Hugh Jackman feels incredibly guilty for the part he played in the disappearance of his daughter, and his intense guilt leads him to unspeakable acts, all committed in the name of his daughter. Jake Gyllenhaal's character feels a profound sense of duty, he feels that he must find the girls, and that if they end up dead that it is his fault, and it is this duty that will drive him mad. The film deals with how we deal with guilt, how we react to it and the actions it will drive us to commit. It questions whether the end really justifies the means and whether we can still be considered good people if we do unspeakable things.

Overall i was disappointed by Prisoners, the film is so good, so suspenseful and thrilling at the beginning, and yet so disappointing, bloated and masturbatory at the end, never have i seen a film that had all the right ingredients, but which failed to put them together correctly. Rating: C+

Keller Dover: Pray for the best, but prepare for the worst.