Prisoners

Rating: 9/10 (22 October 2013)

The Lords Prayer opens the film as Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) an extremely religious man and his son Ralph (Dylan Minnette) stalk a deer that will soon be their Thanksgiving dinner. Prisoners takes on religious undertones, without forcing any biblical views on the audience. It simply shows, religious or not, how any human is capable of having a dark side.
Thanksgiving Day, the Dover's (Hugh Jackman, Maria Bello, Dylan Minnette, and Erin Gerasimovich) and the Birches (Terrence Howard, Viola Davis, Zoe Borde, and Kyla Drew Simmons) eat their nicely prepared meal, in their cozy home, cuddled up in the suburbs. After dinner both of the young daughters Anna Dover (Erin Gerasimovich) and Joy Birch (Kyla Drew Simmons) decide to go play outside. After a few hours, the parents begin their search, with no results, they call 911. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is brought on as lead detective, and his prime suspect is Alex (Paul Dano), a fully grown man, with the intelligence of a ten year old boy.
The film has the best cast that I've seen all year. You get Hugh Jackman giving his most impressing role of his career. The intensity that Jackman brings to such a loving family man is nothing short of genius, he hits every major note perfectly. Maria Bello is also quite remarkable as Jackman's grieving wife. Its also nice to see Terrence Howard in a role where he is not a dominant male. Howard is extremely soft spoken in this film, and his vulnerability gets to shine through. Viola Davis hits another one out of the park. I believe you could throw Viola Davis into anything and she would make it better.
Jake Gyllenhaal also gives one of his top three performances of his career as the constantly blinking detective that has never had a case go unsolved. At first the blinking was slightly distracting, but after a few scenes, you can see that Gyllenhaal has fully committed to the blink, it becomes just a twitch that the character has developed over his life. Its truly stunning work.
Paul Dano gives his most memorable role since There Will Be Blood, which is way more of a show-offy, bombastic type roll than his character of Alex in Prisoners where he is shy, more reserve, and chooses his words carefully. Alex's Aunt is played by Melissa Leo whom along with the rest of the cast, gives an extremely brilliant, breathtaking performance.
This is Denis Villeneuve's first American film and let me tell you that its more pleasing then ever. The only flaw with the film, in my opinion, is that it runs about fifteen to twenty minutes too long. But thats just a minor flaw amongst the insanely talented cast, eerie cinematography and a well written screenplay. I give Prisoners a 9 out of 10.