A Very Dark and Chilling Thriller That Is Well Worth It

Rating: 9/10 (20 September 2013)

I went and saw this new thriller from director Denis Villenueve. A lot of different things about it made me interested despite the fact that I haven't seen the director's other films on his resumé.
Prisoners begins with Keller and Grace Dover (Hugh Jackman and Maria Bello), who live in the small town in Pennsylvania. They are taking their son and daughter to visit the Birch family headed by Franklin and Nancy (Terrence Howard and Viola Davis) for Thanksgiving. While there, the youngest daughters, Anna and Joy, go around the neighborhood and mess around on an RV, before their siblings make them stop. Later, Anna and Joy go outside again and don't return, which causes immediate panic for the Dovers and Birches. At the same time, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is eating alone at a Chinese restaurant when he gets a call about a suspicious RV at a nearby rest stop. Loki takes the call and other cops show up. The driver of the RV is Alex Jones (Paul Dano) and he is immediately a suspect in kidnapping Anna and Joy. Loki does not play around when interrogating Alex as he thinks Alex is guilty. However, the RV is clean in the sense that there is no evidence to arrest Alex. Alex is let go, and Keller is not happy about this as he also strongly believes Alex to be guilty. Keller does everything he can to track down the girls. Grace is worried sick for her girl, literally. The Birches are also very worried. Loki must do everything in his power to track the girls' kidnapper and safely have them returned home before its too late.
Denis Villenueve does an excellent job with handling this dramatic and chilling material. He created some powerful and emotional scenes with the shot lists he has put together. Villenueve has does a nice job at keeping the story moving forward while making this very emotional for the audience. Aaron Guzikowski wrote the screenplay here, and does a nice job of writing a dark, gritty, chilling script. Guzikowski does a nice job at making some plot twists I was not expecting. The only fault I point out on Denis Villenueve and Aaron Guzikowski is the ending is iffy, but the film overall is very well done thanks to the director and writer.
Jake Gyllenhaal gives a very powerful performance as Detective Loki. He does a great job at showing a man who cares about the job at hand and will do anything to solve this case and have the girls safely returned home. Loki is a hard worker and Gyllenhall gives the best performance of his career. Hugh Jackman also does great work as Keller Dover. With this role, Jackman is very raw and emotional as a religious man and loving father who will also stop at nothing until his daughter is home safe and sound. Jackman gives one of the best performances in his career in this film.
Of the supporting cast, Maria Bello is the standout as the worried, sick mother literally. Despite having limited screen time, Bello makes the most of her role as she is told by her husband to stay home and get better. She is even suspicious when some unusual activity happens in her house that makes her wonder if it's Anna. Terrence Howard and Viola Davis do some nice and emotional work here as the Birches. Howard has a bit more to do than Davis, but does great job at acting with his facial expressions. A surprising performance to me was Melissa Leo as Alex Jones's aunt. She is great at playing like nothing's wrong, despite her nephew being highly accused of being a kidnapper. Paul Dano even does a surprising job as the guy suspected of kidnapping and is good at playing the dumb guy who doesn't know what anyone is talking about.
From a technical aspect, the best is the camera work by DP Roger Deakins. Deakins really is the best DP out there and knows very well how to get the shots his directors want and his brilliant use of lighting. I also quite enjoyed the editing by longtime Clint Eastwood collaborators Joel Cox and Gary Roach. I even thought the production design by Patrice Vermette.