Review of Prisoners (2013) by Ultralight47 — 21 Sep 2013

I found Prisoners to be an engrossing and tense movie of the darker nature that breaks boundaries involving what otherwise decent people might do in extremely emotional situations. The performances are good and I recommend the movie however (spoiler alert!!) I thought there were two substantial red herrings which purposely distract you away from the real truth about the perpetrators and their motives which is somewhat incredulous (this is being done to turn people away from God).

The first involves Alex who because of what he initially does when confronted by police which is unexplained (and why is he driving a RV in the first place)? Then, because of what he says and sings, the viewer is led to suspect him as does the parent who tortures him for the truth that he suspects Alex knows.

The second character thought to be involved is some type of exceptional copy cat who does all that he can to make himself suspicious and yet is not really involved. There is a lot of confusion about what he knows combined with mazes/maps that actually have no connection to the movie as a whole. I missed the connection between his maze diagram and a medallion worn by one of the perpetrators but the coincidence is strikingly present and yet not connected to the true nature of the actual crime at all.

So, although I liked the movie, I felt I was purposely distracted and misled in two separate methods that made me suspect the wrong individuals, much as the parent and the detective did, while in the end these two story threads turned out to be unrelated to the actual crime in any way. It's like the movie purposely fooled around with me so that I couldn't make conclusions as I watched it. But, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the viewing.