Mesmerizing, Ambiguous and Gritty Thriller

Rating: 9/10 (26 January 2014)

On the Thanksgiving, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), his wife Grace (Maria Bello), their teenage son Ralph (Dylan Minnette) and their little daughter Anna (Erin Gerasimovich) go to the home of their neighbors and friends Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard), his wife Nancy (Viola Davis), their teenage daughter Eliza (Zoë Soul) and their little daughter Joy (Kyla-Drew Simmons) to celebrate together in a lunch party. Anna and Joy want to play on the street and Ralph stays with them. The girls play in a ROV and Ralph brings them back home. Later Anna asks her father to go to their house with Joy to seek her emergency whistle and Keller tells her to call Ralph or Eliza to go with them.
Later the families realize that the girls went alone have vanished and they call the police department. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is assigned to the case and he arrests the teenager Alex Jones (Paul Dano) that drives the trailer. Soon they learn that Alex has the IQ of a ten year-old boy and he is discharged. When he is leaving the precinct with his aunt Holly Jones (Melissa Leo), Keller presses Alex and he says to Keller that "the girls have not cried when he left them". Keller asks to keep Alex imprisoned during the investigations, but Loki cannot hold him anymore. While Detective Loki investigates the pedophiles near the location, Keller decides to abduct Alex to torture him and find where his beloved daughter and her friend are, crossing the thin line between right and wrong.
"Prisoners" is a mesmerizing, ambiguous and gritty thriller about the kidnapping of two girls by a sick serial-killer. The plot is divided in interesting premises that raise the discussion of what is right and what is wrong when the life of your daughter is in danger. Is Keller right or wrong abducting Alex after listening to what he told him? The police work is flawed, leaving Alex without surveillance just like in the real world.
This movie has magnificent cast and cinematography and the story has glimpses of the dark Franc-Dutch "Spoorloos" (1988). The open conclusion is another plus in this movie. My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "Os Suspeitos" ("The Suspects")