Review of Prisoners (2013) by Ola G — 19 Mar 2015

How far would you go to protect your family? Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is facing every parent's worst nightmare. His six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy, and as minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV that had earlier been parked on their street. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) arrests its driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), but a lack of evidence forces his release. As the police pursue multiple leads and pressure mounts, knowing his child's life is at stake the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family?...

The topic of "Prisoners" is without no doubt one of the more difficult things a human being can go through. A missing child and when minutes turns into hours into days every second is valuable. There´s an emotional complexity in the film and the sense of dread/something terrifying lurking in the darkness is so apparent you can touch it. Denis Villenueve has managed to put together this strong movie without losing the focus of the topic and getting the absolutely best out of every actor/actress in the film. Hugh Jackman is magnificent (one of his best performances showing all the emotional states you can imagine), Paul Dano is great as the pacified Alex and the same goes for Jake Gyllenhaal, Terence Howard, Maria Bello and Melissa Leo. I love the layers in the film and Villenueve keeps you in his grip until the end part in which you start to grasp the connecting dots before the conclusion. The weight in the movie lays on the male counterparts and all the females are less prominently in the film. This gives maybe a less balanced script, but it´s not stealing the focus of the film. "Prisoners" is truly engaging throughout the running time despite not maybe adding a revolutionary point of view on a classic theme.