Glum, overlong, and goes off the rails before the end

Rating: 7/10 (4 October 2013)

Two small girls, the daughters of two families, are abducted while playing outside. An unbalanced man is taken into custody but released for lack of evidence. The detective on the case continues to pursue leads, but one of the fathers takes matters into his own hands, seizes the suspect, and tries to extract the location of the girls from him. But maybe he doesn't have the right person...
There are good things about Prisoners, starting with the performances of Hugh Jackman (father Keller Dover), Jake Gyllenhaal (Detective Loki), and Paul Dano (suspect Alex Jones). The situation is a good one, the moral issues are interesting, some suspense is generated, and the cinematography and production design is very good at conveying a cold, dark world where cold, dark things happen.
There are some not-so-good things about it too. At 153 minutes it is overlong by at least half an hour. The final third goes seriously off the rails story-wise. The moral issues are never really addressed. The female roles are, by and large, underwritten. And, ultimately, it is a somewhat dispiriting movie.
I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to.