An exciting serial killer thriller but I had trouble believing torture victim wouldn't crack

Rating: 7/10 (30 March 2014)

Canadian director Denis Villeneuve is back with another densely plotted movie with 'Prisoners'. His 2011 'Incendies' was interesting but ultimately full of too many scenes which forced the viewer to suspend one's disbelief, one too many times. 'Prisoners' also has some questionable plot points but it's eminently more entertaining than Incendies.
Villeneuve proffers up an interesting protagonist, Keller Dover (played by an intense Hugh Jackman), a survivalist type, who has no compunctions about teaching his son how to shoot a deer, on a hunting trip, depicted at the beginning of the film. While Jackman has a lot to work with depicting the hot-head Keller, Terrence Howard has little to do playing Franklin Birch, Keller's exact opposite: a passive (and thinly drawn) middle class black professional. The break into Act II occurs when Keller's and Birch's daughters are abducted after disappearing from the Birch family home.
Since an RV was parked right near where the girls disappeared, the driver ends up as the number one suspect. The police soon track the driver down at a rest stop and he tries to escape by eluding a police blockade with his RV. The driver turns out to be Alex Jones, who on the surface appears to be mentally feeble. When Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) can find no evidence linking Alex to the girls' abduction and concludes he doesn't have the mental capacity to kidnap the girls, he's forced to release him, and allow him to return to the residence of Holly Jones, his aunt, a creepy senior, expertly played by Melissa Leo.
A good deal of 'Prisoners' revolves around Keller's abduction and subsequent imprisonment of Alex, who he believes knows where the kidnapped girls are. Keller insists that Alex told him "they didn't cry until I left them," when Keller tries to choke him at the time he's released by the police, in front of a multitude of TV news reporters (no one else hears what Alex says to Keller).
Before discussing the issue of Alex's refusal to talk, there are two red herrings in the plot, designed to throw you off track. Both involve Detective Loki's interaction with two suspects. The first is a priest who's on parole for a sex crime—out of the blue Loki finds a bound, deceased man in the priest's basement. The priest claims that he was forced to kill the man after he revealed (during confession) that he was a serial killer, who would kill again. Later, Loki chases after a suspicious man seen at a vigil for the missing girls, in front of the Birch's home. He turns out to be a wannabe serial killer, Taylor, who breaks into the family houses of real serial killer's victims and steals their clothes. Loki, who supposedly has solved all of his cases, blows this one, after Taylor grabs one of Loki's deputy's guns and shoots himself in the mouth.
Even if you believe in both these incredible turn of events, one is hard pressed to believe in the film's main premise—that Alex would refuse to talk, despite being tortured for days by Keller. SUPER SPOILERS AHEAD. One of the arguments that Alex doesn't talk is because he is mentally handicapped. But that's debunked by the points Keller raises—he knew about the girls and told Keller; he tried to escape from the police in his RV and had a driver's license and was able to drive.
Another reason (which seems to be suggested by the filmmakers) is that he's under the spell of Aunt Holly and is either a) afraid of her, b) evil like her, or c) both. He seemingly is given a free pass at film's end, despite Keller's statement that he confessed that he basically knew where the girls were (the free pass may be due to the fact that Keller's credibility was completely suspect, by breaking the law by abducting him). Still, while possible, I still think it's unlikely that Alex would never have turned against the old lady. Think of the child abduction case of Steven Stayner. He was imprisoned for seven years but when given the opportunity, he escaped and saved a newly abducted child. Alex was the first child abducted by Holly and her husband and the filmmakers would like us to believe he was psychologically beholden to his captor. But in real life, the Stayner case proves the opposite. I would like to think the desire for freedom would still burn in Alex's breast and his abduction by Keller would have been the perfect opportunity for him to spill the beans about his aunt. By confessing, he's smart enough to know that Aunt Holly would immediately be taken into custody and he would not have to be afraid of her anymore.
Prisoners represents a critique of those who embrace the survivalist mentality and act as vigilantes. We expect Keller to save his daughter but actually Detective Loki does so after racing to the hospital and saving Keller's daughter from poisoning (Loki's big car race is not that exciting, since the outcome is pretty much expected). Instead, Keller underestimates Holly who turns out to be responsible for the girls' abduction as well as numerous other serial killings. Keller ends up in that hole and my interpretation of the abrupt (but clever) ending, is that he WILL rescue Keller, and let him face the music.
'Prisoners' indeed will drag you into its electrically-charged story and keep you at the edge of your seat to the end. The supporting players, those who play the wives and children of Keller and Franklin, do quite well, but are saddled by underdeveloped parts. Ultimately, you will have to overlook the red herrings and the main premise that the feeble (or perhaps not so feeble) Alex, will not crack under torture. I prefer to believe that he would, as most people would in that situation.