Do Not Mess With Hugh Jackman- Prisoners Review

I got a little bored last night and walked to the video store to rent a movie. Yes, I am still fortunate enough to live next to a real live actual video store. And what a luxury it is. I prefer it to the likes of Netflix and Hulu. Call me nostalgic. Call me old-fashioned. Call me I-used-to-work-at-a-Blockbuster :/ If you don't have a local video store in your area, the local library is a good resource for DVD's and they are usually free to check out. I know this now because I'm an old person with nothing to do.

Any way here goes.

 

PRISONERS - 2013 - ***½
dir. Denis Villeneuve.
Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano, Dylan Minnette, Zoe Borde.

Holy fucking shit that was intense! Jesus Christ! I don't even know where to begin.

I can't imagine the helplessness a parent must feel when their child is taken from them. Losing someone is hard enough. Losing someone and not knowing what happened to them and not knowing how to help them has to be worse.

It's Thanksgiving time. Keller and Grace Dover (a career best Hugh Jackman and Maria Bello) are taking their kids down the street to enjoy a holiday dinner with their best friends Nancy and Franklin Birch. (Viola Davis and Terrence Howard.) Within hours of being there, the two youngest girls go missing. Then all hell breaks loose.

You can tell from the get go this is going to be an uncomfortable film. With the king of cinematography, Roger Deakins, (who has been nominated for an Oscar 10 times and has yet to win) behind the camera and a haunting score by Johann Johannsson, (that's his real name, I'm not kidding) there's no getting away. Your are trapped.

The case of the missing girls is assigned to Detective Loki, played fantastically by Jake Gyllenhaal as I've never seen him before. I can't help but wonder about the name Loki. Fans of the Marvel world will recognize the name Loki and the Asgardian God of mischief, madness and evil. Loki is covered in tattoos hidden by his detective uniform that elude to a troubled past. Perhaps he has become a detective to live a life of redemption. After all, he has solved every case he's ever been assigned.

Paul Dano plays Alex Jones, the only suspect that the police can come up with. Dano has established himself as the great young character actor of his generation. On par with Dennis Hopper. The scenes with him and Jackman are among the hardest to watch. Canadian director Villeneuve, in his first American feature, is unflinching in they way he portrays violence. Which will alienate some viewers.

Davis. Gyllenhaal. Howard.

Melissa Leo turns in a great performance as Alex's Aunt. Viola Davis and Maria Bello have the distraught mother roles down pat. (Bello played a very similar role in the 2010 movie Beautiful Boy about a high school shooting.) All four children in this movie are amazing. Usually child actors can pull you out of a film that has this much intensity. They don't. They're great. The cast is nothing short of epic.

Prisoners will undoubtedly be compared to such films as Mystic River, Zodiac, In the Bedroom even The Brave One. These film asks very tough questions. Moral questions. What do you do when you think the police aren't doing enough to help you? Do you take matters into your own hands?

I knew very little about this movie going into it. So, I don't want to give away all the surprises. But it is full of twists and turns. Solid, solid screenplay by Aaron Guzikowski. The first hour and a half is hard to watch. However, the last hour, I felt like Murder, She Wrote trying to put the pieces together.

The film was near perfect for me but at 2 hours and 33 minutes, it was simply to long.

There are some powerful themes in this motion picture. Guilt. Vengeance. Atonement. If you can sit through it, it's rewarding. Trust me.

(3½ stars ***½ out of 4 ****)