A powerful and enthralling experience

Rating: 10/10 (20 October 2016)

This is the kind of film I love. A dark mystery/thriller with compelling characters and twists. It seemed these films were abundant in the 90s, but hard to come across today. 'Prisoners' is one of the best thrillers I've seen in recent times. The story is absorbing right from the get go. It locks the audience in and never lets them go for the next 150 minutes.
It undoubtedly helps when your two stars are in exceptional form, both delivering some of the best performances of their careers. Jake Gyllenhaal's acting career has really come to life in the last four years or so. Here, he gives a performance perfectly suited to the film. He never drops a scene and plays off every actor he's on screen with perfectly. Topping that though is Hugh Jackman. The man showed his unbelievable acting chops back in 2006 with his performance in 'The Prestige'. Here though he quite possibly tops that. He brings life to an incredibly complex and conflicted character. If a lesser actor had taken on this role the entire film could have fallen completely flat and had no power whatsoever. He can't have been far off an Oscar nomination.
When a two and a half hour film flies by and you can't believe it is over already, you know it is high in quality. Not only that, but there are many discussion points that are fascinating to talk about and debate after the film is over. I love nothing more than a debate about a film topic where no one is ever "right" because there is no official answer, yet people make great points that make you entirely reconsider your original opinion. This is one of those films that lends itself to that. I was initially a little put off by the length of the run time, but I implore you not to be. It's very close to being a modern masterpiece.