A bleak crime drama

Rating: 9/10 (25 April 2020)

Denis Villeneuve is currently one of the best directors around and for good reason. His first American film, Prisoners, was a prime example of this. Prisoners could easily have been a film that could have been a passable but unremarkable crime drama about a child's disappearance. Villeneuve and screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski were able to elevate the material, making Prisoners into an intense thriller about a father exploring his dark side so he can find his daughter, a police procedural about the investigation, and a family drama about a family struggling with the disappearance. Prisoners was a bleak film that worked as a character study and allowed many talented actors really juicy roles.