Grim, gripping, great performances. Not a masterpiece.

Rating: 8/10 (26 October 2013)

Aaron Guzikowski's screenplay for 'Prisoners' was near the top of the list of best unmade for quite some time; at one point Hugh Jackman was attached to the project, but dropped out for reasons that remain unclear, though scheduling conflict may not be quite as pertinent as a lack of artistic cohesion with the original director. As serendipity would have it, the much later arrival of Denis Villeneuve as director, to his first English language feature, drew a mega cast of great talent, both in front of and behind the camera, including Jackman again. This is presumably based on the acknowledgement of his previous Award-nominated work. With Villeneuve on board, the screenplay seemed destined to become so much more than your average abduction thriller; to a great extent this fact is both the strength, and arguably the weakness of the final product.
The straightforward setup is of two quite different but friendly families whose daughters go missing after Thanksgiving dinner. When the detective assigned to the case apprehends a suspect and finds no evidence of any crime with which to charge him, he has no choice but to release him. The subsequent act of the film follows the predictable route of a father taking the law into his own hands, and raises important questions about the morality and effectiveness of torture, the dangers of all actions and judgements, right or wrong, being governed by instinct and not logic, and the most obvious: What would you do, and where would YOU draw the line? The final act reaches a little too hard for a "Gotcha!" finale, which may disappoint those who did not want to see it become a more generic thriller, but it does not undermine the movie too badly.
'Prisoners' is beautifully shot by the man responsible for some of the best looking films you can name, Roger Deakins. Much as with the late Conrad L. Hall, you can sense that every shot took forever to setup, but the result always justifies that time. With a constantly gritty, doom-laden tone, one really cannot help but keep thinking of David Fincher; with the inclusion of Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki, it is near impossible not to recall 'Zodiac'. There has been much made of Hugh Jackman's powerhouse performance as the angry Keller Dover, and there is no doubt his intensity is spot-on, but for me, Gyllenhaal actually quietly steals the show with a perfectly-pitched performance as a dog-tired, stressed detective who can feel his grip on the case gradually slipping; I don't think he has been better.
The film is paced with a deliberately painful slowness; its moments of tension and excitement are highlighted as quite so intense by virtue of their brevity. This is a story of depth, with a lot to digest and discuss on every level. The thoughtful watcher will, upon reflection, come to realise nothing in the film is irrelevant; as Detective Loki himself says, "Everything matters." The twists and turns in the final act build on the idea at the heart of the film, with the title growing increasingly relevant; this encourages deeper thought than your more average thriller. Something rather fascinating about the direction is that from quite early, a lot of the audience will already know HOW the film will end; it is HOW it gets there which might take most by surprise!
'Prisoners' isn't a movie you enjoy so much as admire; incredibly artful, it is more a film of ideas and thinking points. It may be possible to pick little holes in the procedural elements, but it remains a challenging piece that will probably benefit from repeat viewing. Due to the fact everything ties up well, it is not as hole-riddled as a casual viewer may think, although that is not to say that, as it heads into more generic "Fincher" territory, it does not become a little too convoluted for its own good; certainly there is little doubt the film is at its strongest as the tense, slow examination of a controversial topic. Despite the contrivances, the fact that it is, at times, more heavy-handed than it need be, and that Terrence Howard, Viola Davis and Melissa Leo are given frustratingly little to do, 'Prisoners' nevertheless remains a piece of work which demands attention and respect for the film making.
It would certainly be unjust to say this isn't one of the films of the year, and I definitely sense an Oscar for the cinematography here.