Movie review: ‘Prisoners’

Words by:
Dan Bull
Follow @DanBull7609

As a small-town American father, with a knack for shooting deer and a basement full of emergency supplies, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) soon shows he also has the temper of Wolverine, and a stronger disdain for the law than Jean Valjean, when, following the disappearance of his daughter and her best friend on Thanksgiving, he takes matters into his own hands.

When prime suspect, clapped-out RV driving Alex Jones (a spine-chillingly creepy Paul Dano as Alex Jones, with a voice like Michael Jackson at half the volume) is released on bail, controlling Keller is far from happy. Despite his pleas to man-on-the case Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), there is insufficient evidence to keep Jones in. Gyllenhall adds yet another stellar performance to an ever growing list, with his Loki arguably an even more complex character than his Brokeback Mountain performance. With a tick that becomes more prominent throughout the film, and obvious demons we aren’t ever shown, his “100% record” for solving cases has far from created one of the uber confident, cocky cops we’re used to seeing.

The story takes an unsettling twist when old-fashioned father Keller kidnaps Jones, torturing him for information and all too easily keeping Loki at bay. Encouraging his wife (Maria Bello) to take sleeping pills and forcing his son to keep information from her, Keller confuses love and control, which Jackman delivers with precision.

Prisoners marks director Denis Villeneuve’s first full-length English feature, and with 2010’s Incendies being nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar, could he now have his sights on the award for ‘Best Picture’? Visually, it’s a stunning set of picture perfect frames, shrouded in weather without being too cliché (rain = sad, sad = rain) and with a depth that’s almost 3D, without the need for black, plastic specs. Whether staring through windscreen wipers or watching a broken character crumble, like a hawk, from a bird’s eye view, the sense of closeness adds to the tension, echoed with a minimal soundtrack that somehow manages to create the sense of suspense of Jaw’s two notes in just one.

A supporting cast, including Terrence Howard as Franklin Birch (father of Joy, who also disappeared) and Oscar winner Melissa Leo as Jones’ aunt and guardian, Holly, bring strong performances from both sides of the story, however it’s Dano who is the most captivating. Despite the fact that, like his role in Little Miss Sunshine, it’s a mainly silent role, he has become a modern day Charlie Chaplin, delivering just one expression for every one of Jackman’s pages of script, yet coming off as the winner of the act-battle.

At 150 minutes it’s ambitiously lengthy considering the subject, however, a whole host of moral dilemmas, and cinematography that’s unafraid to play out a moment until it’s natural end (in a similar style to Clint Eastwood’s direction) ensures the audience’s attention throughout. By the final thirty minutes, you’ll feel as pressured as Detective Loki to decide who and what is right or wrong, and which you might have chosen.