Prisoners

If proof were needed of the versatility of both Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal then this film has to be it. Jackman delivers what can only be described as a visceral performance here as “Keller” (HJ) and his family prepare to celebrate Christmas. Right from the start, we sense their’s a bleak and chilly town, but the family atmosphere as daughter “Anna” (Erin Gerasimovich) and her best friend “Joy” (Kyla-Drew) are amongst friends enjoying their day. As times ticks on, though, he notices that the girls have gone AWOL. No amount of yelling or local searching is helping so the police are duly called in. That’s the purview of “Loki” (JG) who has unorthodox methods (and tattoos) and who not only has to try to find the girls but contain the increasingly unbridled anger of a father who will stop at nothing. Their first lead comes in the form of “Alex” (Paul Dano) whom you could say isn't quite the full shilling and who appears to know something. What, though? Interrogation reveals little but “Keller” isn’t convinced and so upon his release after the statutory forty-eight hours he takes matters into his own, brutal hands! Now “Loki” has more to investigate as he hones on on another suspect who keeps snakes on suitcases! With both men becoming exasperated by their lack of progress, which one - if either - will get a break that might track down the girls. The question writ lathe throughout is one of what wouldn’t you do for your child? The law is fine for everyone else, or when it gets results, but when it fails - even the most benign of souls can become a monster. Driven, vengeful, cruel and pretty damn useful with a hammer and some plumbing. In case you are wondering, there are twists and turns galore and although I did actually manage to guess who the villain of this piece was, the denouement itself is something really quite unexpectedly incomplete. The photography and the soundtrack both help capture the crescendoing frenzy that reminded me a little of “Psycho” (1960) and with delicately strong supporting efforts from Viola Davis and Maria Bello as the equally terrified mothers and from Terence Howard as the doubly conflicted “Franklin”, this is a powerful thriller that is unnerving pretty much throughout.

Prisoners is a largely generic revenge / suspense / mystery "they have my kid" tale with a predictable plot that gives itself away too early. No attempt at realism, this is Scooby-Doo style investigation - lie detectors are treated seriously, "bad guys" are largely 1-dimensional with poorly explained motives designed to surprise rather than give insight, etc. It tries to make up for this in a few ways: a) bump up the intensity of scenes (comes across forced and awkward), b) add extra violence and dark semi-religious symbolism (seems out of place and largely meaningless), and most importantly c) maintain an air of mystery by throwing left-field plot points at you every 3-5 minutes to keep your attention. If you carefully note the clues, about half way through the film it strongly indicates the finale. After that the air of mystery that keeps the film feeling suspenseful largely dissolves and you are left with what feels like a AI-generated script desperately trying and failing to throw you off the initial clues. The film's greatest redeeming quality is its attempt to turn some revenge film character archetypes on their head. It is not always successful, but the attempt to break cliches is always welcome! I suspect a much better film will be inspired by this.

Prisoners is a carefully constructed labyrinth, deceptively simple and very clever. The material was nothing new even when the film was released, but director Denis Villeneuve (pre-Dune) and screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski work a few unexpected twists and turns into their maze to keep us on our toes. The key element, however, is Hugh Jackman’s career-best performance as Keller Dover, a father whose patience for police work quickly runs thin when Detective Loki (the always effective Jake Gyllenhaal) fails to find Dover’s kidnapped little daughter. It will surprise no one that Dover decides to take the law into his own hands, recruiting Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard), his best friend whose daughter has also gone missing, to kidnap the only suspect – whom the police has ruled out for the moment –, take him to an abandoned house, and beat a confession out of him. This is par for the course in the movies, but is it realistic? Can a father, however desperate he may be, really go from zero to psycho in no time flat? The film makes this transition 50% more believable by making the character a committed survivalist, meaning that he was halfway there all along. And even if we still found it hard to believe, Jackman would just browbeat us into believing it with a sadistic, ballistic, animalistic skin-shedding, raw nerve-baring performance wherein he doesn't just go berserk; he goes full on Beserker. In some twisted way, all this makes sense; the antagonist or antagonists are just as crazy as Dover, if not more: making children disappear is their way of “making war with God”. With that in mind, who better than a monster to find a monster? Dover may not in fact be too far off either, or is he? In one of those twists I mentioned, the movie toys with the Law of Economy of Characters by casting Paul Dano as the mentally challenged man on whom Dover’s suspicions (and fists, among other objects) fall. Gyllenhaal’s work is as strong Jackman’s, but more subtle and nuanced; he gives his Loki an eye tic which lets us know that, although he has solved all his cases, and belying his usual calm and collected demeanor, he has not gotten to where he is without some traumas of his own.