PRISONERS Review

Release Date:   September 20th, 2013
Director:   Denis Villeneuve
MPAA Rating:   R
Film Pulse Score:   8/10

Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, best known for the Oscar nominated Incendies, happens to be making his mainstream debut, doing so seemingly under the radar. Villeneuve has made a number of bleak and devastating foreign films and now sees himself tasked with bringing his brand of blunt depictions of the deepest recesses of human darkness with Aaron Guzikowski‘s script littered with red herrings, moral ambiguity and broken, damaged characters to the multiplexes and does so with great success.

Villeneuve’s Prisoners revolves around two little girls, Anna (Erin Gerasimovich) and Joy (Kyla Drew Simmons), that go missing during Thanksgiving dinner and the police investigation that subsequently follows, along with the brash decisions made by the fathers (played by Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard, respectively) in an attempt to procure information as to the whereabouts of their daughters. I feel as though I’ve said too much already as Guzikowski’s script is filled multiple leads, red herrings and a number of surprising turn of events. One should go into Prisoners with little to no knowledge of the film’s plot and developments, which is to say – stop reading and go see Prisoners. I know that renders my review sort of pointless, but I’ve come to terms that.

The film boasts an extensive cast of characters with performances ranging from perfect to a bit over-the-top. On the perfect end of spectrum who have Jake Gyllenhaal, as Detective Loki, giving what might be his greatest performance so far in his career complete with neck and knuckle tattoos, slicked-back hair and incessantly blinking, as if to show the amount of fatigue his character is experiencing or a nervous tick that has developed over his illustrious career of an undefeated case load. Paul Dano also happens to deliver a subtle, yet pitch-perfect performance as Alex Jones the creepy, RV-driving prime suspect that looks like an amalgamation of every pedophile in history. Not to be outdone, David Dastmalchian also shines as the creepy, prime suspect (there’s a lot of suspects) that…looks like an amalgamation of every pedophile in history sans those glasses.

Now…on the over-the-top performance spectrum you have Hugh Jackman, as Keller Dover, the deeply-religious-high-octane-emotion-filled-completely-ready-for-the-end-of-the-world father that takes the investigation into his own hands. Jackman’s character provides much of the film’s heavy-handedness through his stereotypical sappy dialogue, constant praying, brash decision-making and his overall uber-macho mentality. Then there’s Maria Bello as the mother, Grace Dover, who is emotionally-devastated and in a constant state of mental breakdown and rightfully so, albeit this is the only character I’ve seen Bello play in the last few years (Liotta : small-time gangster/crooked cop :: Bello : wife/mother in constant emotional breakdown).

Villeneuve expertly crafts a substantial amount of tension out of seemingly low-key situations through the use of, Icelandic composer, Jóhann Jóhannsson‘s subdued score which excellently compliments the actions on screen and the cinematography provided by Roger Deakins. Once again, Deakins excels in the use of lighting and shadow through the use of motion-detecting floodlights, flashlights and candlelight, accentuating the film’s ominous tone while exquisitely encapsulating the overall depiction of the balance of  human darkness and the shimmers of hope through faith that coexists in the world.

Since it is Villeneuve’s mainstream debut there are a number of studio-esque plot developments throughout Prisoners that are detrimental to the overall impact of the narrative – the plot holes, the haphazard police investigation, a number of clues and leads that just so happen to reveal themselves at the perfect moment and a slew of other genre troupes we’ve come to expect from a studio production. Yet, all of these quibbles are overshadowed by the technical mastery demonstrated by Villeneuve, Deakins, Jóhannsson, Guzikowski and the actors within Prisoners and its perfectly-paced tale of moral ambiguity and the evils perpetrated out of the dark recesses of a damaged psyche.