A deep sigh of relief: the movie’s finally over. Relief not because it was a bad movie; it was enthralling, but it was also dark, bleak, and desperate.
“Prisoners,” stars Hugh Jackman, Viola Davis and Terrence Howard, as parents looking for their two young abducted daughters, and Jake Gyllenhaal, as the detective searching for them.
Movies that delve this far into shadows of humanity aren’t supposed to be this good. Other films, like “Saw” for example, can be brushed aside or taken with a grain of salt, but “Prisoners” stands and demands respect.
Potential viewers must be warned that it’s a heavy film. Audience members seemed to be a bit uncomfortable, laughing at things that weren’t funny and searching for comic relief to no avail. Expect it to be gloomy.
It is the greatest fear of anyone with a daughter or sister to realize they have been abducted. “Prisoners” takes this nightmare and skillfully adds layers of mystery, suspense, twists and questions of morality.
Jackman’s acting was desperate and guttural and was balanced well by Gyllenhaal’s law and disorder. Paul Dano (“Little Miss Sunshine”) and David Dastmalchian (“The Dark Knight”) were straight up creepy.
The pace of the film was methodical. It lasted a hefty 153 minutes, but the movie never let up, and never got too far ahead of itself.
A movie with a good premise can be obliterated by an ill-advised twist, but “Prisoners” never got convoluted and kept the mystery up until the very end.
A downfall to the film might be that it’s just so consistently dark. A lot of people just want to buy popcorn and see crap explode. But that’s what made “Prisoners” a good movie: instead of explosions or cheap scenes that make you jump, it was driven by raw emotion, suspense and mystery.
It’s recommended for anyone that doesn’t mind a little darkness.