A Powerful Tale that Blurs the Line Between Right/Wrong

Rating: 8/10 (3 May 2014)

There was so much positive buzz when PRISONERS premiered on the festival circuit that I really expected it to have some presence at awards time. As the father of a little girl, I had a little extra bias settling in to watch this movie because the idea of a father in a desperate search for his missing daughter is a terrifying thought. PRISONERS did not disappoint on any front: the story, the acting, the tension. It's a movie that grips you at the beginning and doesn't let go until the end credits begin to roll. It's a dark little film that touches on the blurring of right and wrong and what is acceptable to save the life of someone you love. PRISONERS begins on Thanksgiving as the Dovers and the Birch family come together to celebrate. The youngest daughters of each family, Anna and Joy, go outside unattended and disappear without a trace. The only clue was a beaten old RV that had been seen driving around the neighborhood. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is assigned to locate the missing girls and the RV is traced to Alex Jones (Paul Dano), a man with the mental faculties of a ten-year-old child. Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) believes Jones knows where his daughter is being kept and, when Loki and the police aren't working fast enough, he takes matters into his own hands. He grabs Jones and locks him away in an old abandoned family home and begins his own investigation. Every minute counts as Loki and Keller race to find the missing girls before it's too late.
PRISONERS is a very deliberately paced film and, at two and a half hours, you'll be surprised that at no point does it feel its length. It's a potboiler of a movie, building tension slowly so that the moments of extreme action hit you that much harder. The movie is a bit more complex than just, "How do we make a mentally-challenged, potentially dangerous man give us information?" Loki's investigation and the story behind the girls' abductions (as well as countless other unfortunate children before them) is almost more interesting than Keller going off on his own for his vigilante approach. The movie has the occasional red herring to throw the detective (and the audience) off course but it's never done without reason. Every person involved in the story, from the pedophile priest to the creepy stranger lurking at the girls' candlelight vigil, has some connection to the story and the people behind the disappearances. Moments that appear trivial at first are later revealed to be vital information in piecing together the over-arching story. What I'm getting at is that the movie is pleasantly complex and keeps you engaged until the screen fades to black. You never really know what to expect and you start to question how far is too far. After everything's been revealed at the end, it still leaves you wondering if all of the pain inflicted in the pursuit of saving lives was justifiable. I love that there's no right answer. What seems right at the beginning and has you gritting your teeth and silently encouraging Keller later has you looking back and thinking just how much fear can blind a person to rationality.
All of this comes together with help from some great cinematography from Roger Deakins and a powerful cast. The entire movie's got a dreary, overcast feel. It's set in the winter and, when it's not pouring rain, it's a bleak gray clouded sky giving this movie not a single bright moment. It's got a strong sense of atmosphere to compliment a painful story. The cast in PRISONERS is phenomenal. Hugh Jackman breaks away from playing the X-MEN's Wolverine for a bit to portray a character with more range than cynicism and rage. That's not to say Keller doesn't have his share of rage in the film, but he sprinkles in desperation, fear, and undying determination. From the beginning of the film, we are introduced to Keller as somewhat of a religious man with a sense of preparedness for any situation. He lectures his son about how you should be prepared in the event of any catastrophe in which the rules of society might break down. Unfortunately, the one event Keller never planned for was the one in which he finds himself now and he devolves into an entirely new animal over the course of the film. Jake Gyllenhaal continues to remind me that I don't give him enough credit as an actor. His character, Loki (not the God of Mischief sort), is a skilled investigator. He's hasn't been assigned to a missing persons case that he hasn't solved. The disappearance of Anna and Joy poses his first real struggle and it's only made worse by Keller's interference. He's just a man trying to do his job and save these girls but everyone seems to be working against him. We get Maria Bello, Viola Davis, and Terrence Howard in supporting roles and Paul Dano as the mentally deficient Alex Jones. He's creepy and off-putting, but is he capable of something so horrible? The movie keeps you guessing and Dano's just great.
There's not much more to say. I really enjoyed PRISONERS. I would've like to see it get more recognition but I suppose it's not surprising when you look at some of the other late year additions to the awards race. It's a great movie but doesn't compare to movies 12 YEARS A SLAVE or even American HUSTLE. It got lost in the shuffle but I hope it finds plenty of attention on home video from an audience to appreciate it.