Director: Denis Villeneuve.
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano.
Certificate: 15.
Running Time: 153 minutes.
Synopsis: During a meal on Thanksgiving, neighbourhood friends Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) and Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard) discover that their younger daughters have gone missing. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is the officer tasked with finding the girls. As tensions at home mount after a key witness is released, Dover decides to take matters into his own hands in his desperate attempt to gather information about his daughter’s whereabouts.
It may start off very relaxed with its Thanksgiving setting, but PRISONERS’ atmosphere quickly changes, turning into a taut, performance-driven thriller dealing with the uncomfortable subject of child abduction.
As with many films within the genre, the prime suspect is released due to lack of evidence, infuriating Jackman’s character to the point that he decides to take matters into his own hands. What follows are some intense scenes between Jackman and Paul Dano which leave the audience questioning how far they would go in the same situation. We glimpsed it in-between songs during LES MISERABLES, but in PRISONERS Hugh Jackman again proves that there is more to him than his adamantium-infused counterpart. Handling his character’s drastic decisions with tact, Jackman manages to exude pathos in every scene whilst eliciting empathy with his situation.
Gyllenhaal follows up last year’s END OF WATCH with a promotion to detective, giving a solid performance as the frustrated Loki, an archetypal good-cop-with-a-heart who struggles to follow the rules in his bid to get results. Though Dover and Loki both strive for the same outcome, they see the other as a hindrance. Both actors give it everything they’ve got, resulting in some great scenes of confrontation, but with the pair taking up most of the screen time, the remaining cast are unfortunately underused.
PRISONERS’ quiet nature and minimal score work extremely well at drawing you into the story. However, some of the characters are so softly spoken that, should you end up sat next to a loud popcorn muncher, you may miss some key pieces of dialogue. Slow-paced so as to really draw out the tension and frustration felt by the characters, PRISONERS’ dark subject matter and unsettling scenes will not be to everybody’s liking. However, it is an incredibly well acted film that will surely see both Jackman and Gyllenhaal in contention for more awards recognition.
PRISONERS is released in UK cinemas on Friday 27th September.
