There's no denying that Prisoners is gritty, intense, well acted and well directed, but the holes in the script are difficult to ignore

Rating: 7/10 (24 February 2014)

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is just an ordinary family man who is devoted to his wife and young children. Dover's daughter Anna Dover and her friend Zoe Birch are abducted and Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is assigned to the case. Loki arrests Alex Jones based on the fact that his RV was parked near to the Dover's house shortly before the abduction. Loki holds Jones for 24 hours whilst he tries to gather evidence against him, but when he is unable to get any further information from Jones (due to him being unable to answer questions as he has the IQ of a 10 year old) and due to a lack of evidence, Loki is forced to release him. However, when Jones tells Dover (with reference to the 2 girls) that 'he heard them crying when he left them', Dover is convinced that Loki has made a mistake in releasing Jones and takes it upon himself to kidnap Jones and use his own 'methods' to find out what has happened to his daughter. Meanwhile, Loki continues with his investigations.
Prisoners is a gritty, intense and emotional ride with a top notch performance from Jackman (I honestly don't think I've seen a better performance from him). His performance of a 'desperate' father who will do anything to try and find his daughter was brilliant and the fact that he was so convincing in his role helped to give the film lots of credibility. Dano was also brilliant as the rather simple Alex Jones (I thought he was really good in There Will Be Blood, but he was excellent here). The film also features Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard) and Nancy Birch (Viola Davis) as the other kidnapped girl's parents. They were both good, but weren't given much to do. Prisoners isn't exactly original and we have seen many examples of films where 1 man feels as though 'justice' hasn't been served and decides to serve out his own form of justice, but I don't generally complain about a film being unoriginal as long as it is well executed and that's where the strengths lie in Prisoners. This film gets the basics right; the audience care for Dover and his plight and it's certainly very emotional and was tense and engaging from start to finish, but there were problems with the script;
Firstly, there is a scene where another potential suspect is arrested and brought into a police station and when Loki gets heavy when investigating him he pulls a gun out and shoots himself. OK, how did he manage to get a gun in a police station (after being arrested) without anybody knowing? Why was he not searched when he was arrested and then again when he was brought into the police station? I can suspend disbelief for certain things, but there is no way that this would happen. Secondly, we learn that Alex Jones's aunt Holly Jones was the person responsible for the abduction of the girls. The scene that follows shows her pointing a gun at Dover and asking him to put his phone into the disposer. Dover appears to do this, but then picks his phone back up. Alex's aunt forces him into a hole where she had kept the girls hostage and puts a board across it, drives her car onto the board and leaves him for dead. What I couldn't understand is that if Dover had his phone, why didn't he use it? Perhaps he couldn't get a signal, or maybe his battery died. Who knows? This is never clarified.
The open ended "conclusion" will undoubtedly divide audiences. Personally, I hate films that end like that as to me it's just lazy writing. I was disappointed that I sat watching a film for 2 and a half hours and then to find that it didn't really have an ending. Some people may like the idea that they're left to draw their own conclusions, but not me as I think it's a cop out and a very weak way to end a film.
Overall, this film gets a lot more right than it gets wrong. The grittiness, emotion and tension that exists throughout the film makes this film a MUST watch. Jackman and Dano should be singled out for particular praise. What ultimately let the film down was the holes in the script and the rather lame ending. It's a very good film, but not quite as good as I was hoping it would be.