Shoves you into a bottomless pit of despair and forces you to question your morals.

Rating: 9/10 (24 October 2013)

speechless. That's how I'm rendered after watching Prisoners. Let me explain first that this film is the complete opposite of feel-good cinema, and I do not recommend it to everyone. You are placed at the epicenter of one of the more sickening stories in recent memory and are forced to question your morality, your ethics, and far you would go past them for you loved ones.
Prisoners is unsettling, unnerving, squirm-inducing and twisty. Its script keeps you in a quantum state of uncertainty, with suspense that intensifies like the breath-squeezing embrace of a boa. The sobering cinematography and low-key directing add to this effect and make Prisoners brilliantly atmospheric. It's been a long time since I've felt so suffocated with intimidation.
Prisoners gets 4.5 stars and not the magical 5. This is due to the lack of a proper score. The silence works well most of the time and in some scenes works perfectly. However, Prisoners is hard hitting and intense, and a more powerful score would have made the stronger scenes feel much more hair-raising. I know that sounds like nit-picking, but a 5 star movie needs to be damn perfect in every aspect.
No matter. Prisoners is an all-consuming challenge that requires your strictest attention. The acting from its ensemble cast is stellar, particularly from Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko). Prisoners is a hard film to sit through, but has an addictive cocktail of ambiguity, suspense, and moral complexity. And like it or not, it drags you by the scruff of the neck to a nerve-wracking and jaw- dropping conclusion. Prisoners is good. No, it's better than good. It's brilliant.