Well worth seeing

Rating: 9/10 (29 November 2013)

I went to see a movie last weekend—"Prisoners." It was a good product. At 153 minutes it seemed a little long. But I didn't fall asleep. On a scale of one to one hundred, I would score it an 85. That is a pretty good number from me, so I must have liked it. It is much easier for me to point out what I didn't like, than what I did.  I think Hugh Jackman did a good job, but his character (Keller Dover) was a little over the top. I'm not sure how that happened, but I suspect the director, Denis Villeneuve, might have been responsible. Subtract five points.  Unfortunately the film followed the same slothful path as do so many lesser movies— blame conservative Christianity. Subtract five points for laziness and cowardice.  We are led to believe that the character Franklin Birch (played by Terrence Howard) would not be held accountable for the kidnapping and repeated beatings (which led to his death) of character Alex Jones (played by Paul Dano). The charge is felony murder, and he would be prosecuted. Subtract three points.  My popcorn had too much butter. Subtract one point. Everything else about the move was great. I left the theater with a good feeling. I would recommend that "Prisoners" and Sean Penn's "The Pledge" (Jack Nicolson, Benicio Del Toro, Patricia Clarkson and Beau Daniels) be bundled. The similarities are striking. I gave "The Pledge" a strong ninety-nine when I saw it in 2001. Both films are on my top 100 list of contemporary movies.