suspenseful thriller / drama

Rating: 8/10 (13 September 2019)

Two families are celebrating Thanksgiving together. The various family members are having a good time and the same goes for the two small daughters, who are great friends. When the daughters go missing, in broad daylight, two sets of parents are confronted with their worst nightmares...
To begin with the good, "Prisoners" benefits from some outstanding performances. Both Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal deserve any kind of award the movie industry can think up : they truly disappear into their characters. This is also a very well-directed movie which conjures up a pervasive atmosphere of dread and uncertainty. There's a constant sense of something evil, something unhinged lurking just behind the corner. (When that evil is finally uncovered, near the end of the movie, it turns out that "Prisoners" has created a villain for the ages.)
However, the movie also has its drawbacks. Its many strands and ideas do not fit together perfectly - where, for instance, does this snake motif come from ? - and some plot elements are ill-judged. So two little girls disappear under the most suspicious of circumstances, and the police put only one detective on the case ? What does it take to prod the local police into action, in that part of the world ? A band of radioactive cannibals organising a slaughter of the innocents in City Hall ?
The movie explores a grim question, to wit, how far would a loving parent go in order to save his child ? (The answer is : VERY far.) Viewers interested in "contrast and compare" might want to take a look at a recent French thriller with a similar theme, called "Mon garÃ§on".