Bleak Cases

Rating: 8/10 (29 September 2013)

The title of the film, "Prisoners", is the first mystery you will need to figure out. It's puzzling because it is technically not set in a prison nor the main characters are actually prisoners. The best thing to presume is it's a metaphorical term that might refer to the characters' imprisonment to the bleakness of their situation. The film has an intriguing idea for a verisimilitude, but the only thing that breaks that conceit is the twist in the end. However, it's still quite the experience for being a brilliantly made and terribly gripping crime drama.
The investigation is scattered with MacGuffins all over the place, assuming that the film asks the audience to think hard through the mystery as well, but the real idea of the story is how a kidnapping situation may also affect to the lives of the people related to the victims, especially to the one who are desperately worried about them. How this crime can change their humanity, like the father who forces himself to commit bad things just to get them back. The whole message is obvious, but it's no denying how fascinating to study these people by their actions. One is an ugly revenge, while the other is a deliberated case that gives a lot of pressure to the detective. It's extremely gripping, but when it hits to the revelation, it somehow loses a bit of the plot's credibility. It might be for consequential reasons, but it would have been more interesting if it was less conventional.
It's pretty wise to include the parts when the characters are allowed to take time to breathe, if only those parts were a little less broad in their expressions of being mad, but they get quite effective. The performances are amazing enough. Hugh Jackman might be overdoing some of the father's rage, but his greatest feat overpowers the performance. Jake Gyllenhaal, I'm saying this once again, steals the show. His acting career is recently getting better and better. Here, Detective Loki is a character that you should be rooting for throughout the film, and Gyllenhaal justifies it. The direction is artful and weighs every scene of drama, action, and suspense. While the cinematography sharply displays how bleak these lives are.
Despite some of its misstep, Prisoners is an outstanding cinema; it's magnificent in direction, fantastic in acting, stunning in cinematography, and best at pacing. Of course, it never forgets to depict how a terrible crime could cause other people. Not only the victims and the suspects are in trouble here. The result of this can be love ones raging in terror, ugly vigilantism, hard time for the law, and more consequences. This is a strong subject that deserves a lot of complexity. It still includes some exasperation near the end, but aside the conclusion, Prisoners is wholly satisfying anyway.