Prisoners is a 2013 film from Alcon Entertainment. It is directed by Denis Villeneuve, with the script written by Aaron Guzikowski. The movie stars Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal in its main roles, besides actors such as Viola Davis, Terrence Howard and Dylan Minnette. The movie scores an excellent 8.1/10 on IMDb and received a 70 Metascore.
The Story
On the surface it seems a rather simple plotline, two kids get abducted and one of the fathers is willing to go to extreme lengths to find them. While that is the just of it, Denis Villeneuve and his team have been able to expand this into a two and half hour movie that kept me in suspense until the very last second. As a viewer, we, of course, start looking for the suspect with our bird’s eye view. However, even we are often put off track and made to suspect the wrong people.
This dynamic creates an excellent story with plenty of twists that completely shift our perspective. During the hunt for our abductor, we see the gradual deterioration of our main characters, Mr Dover and Detective Loki. Dover starts to go mad rather quickly into the movie, turning to the most extreme measures to find out more about the abduction. In the meantime, Loki keeps calm and collected while doing his investigation. But when in the end he seems to have lost, even he starts to go crazy.
After Joy showed up, the pace quickly picked up. The slow pacing throughout the previous two hours is left behind as Dover knows who’s behind it all. He gets caught but Loki’s actions to keep Anna alive ticked the suspense up tenfold. And then there is the ending, where we hear Anna’s whistle as Loki almost dismisses it, he does find Dover (we can rather safely assume). A beautiful ending.
The Characters
Our main two protagonists are very complex characters with each their special background. Dover is a true family man, but also special in that he has prepared for any catastrophic event. Meantime, we are made to believe that Loki is everything but a family man, with most characters talking to him about how he should start one. His desire to keep his perfect track records pushes him to his limits, getting Bob Taylor killed in the process. Two absolute amazing performances from Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal brings to characters to life at an extremely high level.
The Production
As we are now used to, Denis Villeneuve is a master filmmaker. The cinematography is truly amazing. The suburban life with its large wooden houses and the almost constant rain in moments of distress, for me it created a beautiful, interesting to watch experience that kept me entertained throughout a relatively long movie.