Prisoners (FILM REVIEW)
Prisoners
Film Review
by Kam Williams
Parents and Police Search for Kidnapped Kids in Mesmerizing, Multi-Layered
Mystery
Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is a
rugged outdoorsman and family man with deep roots in rural Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Grace (Maria
Bello), are raising their kids, 6 year-old Anna (Erin
Gerasimovich) and teenage Ralph (Dylan Minnette) in the tiny town of Dover, an idyllic oasis seemingly far removed
from big city afflictions.
It is Thanksgiving morning, and the doting
dad has decided his son is ready to shoot his first deer, a rite-of-passage
he’d shared with his own father upon coming-of-age a generation earlier. And
after a telling tableau dripping with Christian symbolism reflected in a
recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and a cross dangling from their pickup truck’s
rearview mirror, we find the two deep in the woods where the boy does, indeed, bag
his first buck.
“Be ready,” Keller ominously advises
Ralph on the return trip, not because he has a premonition about any impending disaster,
but due to the vague sense of paranoia he has cultivated over the years as an
amateur survivalist. Still, a basement stocked with years’ worth of provisions
would prove to be of no use in the calamity about to unfold later that day.
First, the Dovers travel to the home
of Nancy (Viola Davis) and Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard), neighbors
with a couple of kids around the
same age as theirs. However, after sharing a satisfying Thanksgiving dinner, youngsters
Anna and Joy (Kyla Drew Simmons) vanish without a trace while playing
outside unsupervised.
The only lead
is a suspicious RV parked down the street which the police trace to Alex Jones
(Paul Dano), the mentally-challenged village idiot (Paul Dano) ostensibly incapable
of pulling off such an abduction. With no other clues to follow, the investigating
officer (Jake Gyllenhaal) puts the case on a back burner, much to the chagrin
of the missing girls’ anguished parents.
Given that
time is of the essence, it is no surprise when a very desperate Keller takes
the law into his own hands, with his manic behavior cutting a sharp contrast to
the relatively-measured approach of deliberately-paced Detective Loki. Will the
frustrated father or the laid-back cop crack the case first? Or will they join
forces and pool their resources? Will Anna and Joy be rescued alive, or found
too late to save them? Or will the whodunit simply go unsolved.
That is the
mystery at the heart of Prisoners, a mesmerizing, multi-layered masterpiece brilliantly directed by Dennis
Villeneuve. Screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski deserves equal credit for the film’s
intricately-plotted script which oh so slowly ratchets-up the tension in a
compelling fashion guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat every step
of the way.
A compelling character study of the emotional
toll exacted by a kidnapping on the psyche of the victims’ loved ones.
Excellent
(4 stars)
Rated R for pervasive profanity and disturbing
violence
Running time: 153 minutes
Distributor: Warner
Brothers
To see a trailer for Prisoners, visit:
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