Usually kidnapping thrillers start by filming a happy family dining in the kitchen table and soon their life will be shattered. Denis Villeneuve´s “Prisoners” (2013) does not start like that. In the first few minutes the father Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), whom seems humorless and intense, lectures his son on how to always be prepared for the worst in life. There is always something to do in a tough situation. The dad has also collected a huge storage of canned food in the family´s basement just in case of catastrophe. It becomes clear to everyone that this man is not one you want to play with.
“Prisoners” deals with always topical genre but with a little twist. Two six-years-old suburban kids disappear and the only clue is a creepy RV, which had been seen parked in the neighborhood earlier. During the movie it really hits me: tens of thousands people disappear like this every day and practically no-one will never see them again. Keller’s daughter Anna is the other kidnapped girl and Keller becomes really aggressive due this situation and the mom becomes deeply depressed. Aspects of ”Prisoners” are effective, but for the most part it’s rather ridiculous, despite the fact that it clearly wants to be taken seriously. Acting is more or less aggravating and Hugh Jackman seems to try too hard to be concerned father in his leading role. His screaming through the film tells how weak this father is and that all he needs is something to make him feel powerful.
Investigating does not lead to anything because of the RV owners mental abilities are more like toddlers. Alex is released due to lack of evidence and Dover takes matters to his own hands and kidnaps RV´s owner Alex (Paul Dano) and violates him several times. Jake Gyllenhaal, whom plays detective Loki, has internalized policeman habits super-well. Gyllenhaal has had many film festival nominees from this supporting actor role. Again a nice performance from Gyllenhaal. Dano is unfamiliar actor to me but he really made it interesting to see how the movie ends. To my surprise the ending was nothing to be expected and somehow it seemed like it ended a bit short and the viewer must guess how the story ends. The whole movie seemed to lose some of my interest because of the short ending. I waited over two hours and in a blink of an eye it was suddenly over. I was left cold.
Director Villeneuve gives a couple of truly suspenseful scenes. One is a chase through the nighttime back yards of the neighborhood after a candlelight vigil. By the time the viewer has almost forgotten this scenery, this mysterious man reveals to be part of this crazy revenge theory.
The movie didn´t seem to have too much music playing in any point but there certainly was noices making scenes more convincing and it worked well with the movie itself. Sondtrack fitted well to the movie.
After watching this movie I was amazed by the brilliant camerawork. It was obvious right from the start that the camerawork was out of this world. The scenery is rather dark and it highlights this oppressive atmosphere and there are quite much close sceneries and interesting perspectives. When I heard that “Prisoners” had had Oscar nominee for it´s filming – I wasn´t surprised.
Without further do “Prisoners” is a great movie and it makes me think just how far we are willing to go to protect our family.