Prisoners (2013)

Time for the second review dealing with Torture, but this time a much closer to home form of torture.   What would you do to get your daughter back?  That is the general theme of Prisoners, the dark and very underrated 2013 film. 

Movie: Prisoners (2013)
Rating: R

Starring: Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover, Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective David Loki, Viola Davis as Nancy Birch, Maria Bello as Grace Dover, Tarrence Howard as Franklin Birch, Melissa Leo as Holly Jones, Paul Dano as Alex Jones

Score: 8.5 out of 10 stars
Family Friendly: 2/5 (dark themes, personal violence)
Recommended: Anyone who enjoyed Zodiac  and anyone who wants to see the best ensemble acting of 2013.

Plot Summery (No Spoilers):

Two families meet for thanksgiving, and the youngest daughters go missing, driving everyone involved to the edge of darkness in each persons heart. 

Plot Summery (Spoilers):

Hugh Jackman (aka Wolverine) is a god fearing preper who in the opening sequence is taking his son to hunt deer.  Soon you learn it is thanksgiving, and the Dovers go to the Birch family to share thanksgiving.  

In the moment that I have been told that is every parents nightmare  (I am childless, and at the current rate, will remain childless) the two youngest girls go missing.   Soon the police id a suspicious RV, and find a man-child (Alex Jones, played by the always excellent Paul Dano) in on it.   He is the main suspect. 

Detective Loki questions him, but is unable to pin any crime on him, as the RV is clean and there is nothing to hold him on.   Jackman's Keller assaults Jones and then is told to calm down and be with his family.

The plot then goes into two main threads, both of them excellent, one is Detective Loki's investigation as he increasingly deals with darker matter as he carries out his investigation, and we watch the two families deal with the horror of missing the girls.

Keller decides to take the investigation in his own hands, and kidnaps Alex Jones (the character, not the crazy radio host) and ties him up in a old apartment complex to question him.   Leading to the moments where Keller does anything to try to save his daughter. 

Near the third act the plot gets more convoluted and to sum it all up, Alex Jones mother is not really his mother, but her and her late husband would kidnap kids to make religious parents loose faith.  Loki is forced to kill her and rescue the remaining girl, while Keller is buried in a pit on the property to die.   The last moments of the film is Loki perhaps hearing Keller to rescue him.


My thoughts:

My thoughts focus on these catagories

excellence in acting. 
Well crafted storytelling
God, faith, and and prepping
Plot Issues

Excellence in Acting

This is one of the best acted films of 2013.   Everyone is at the top of their game.   Jake Gyllenhaal does a older reprise of his excellent Zodiac characterization, but with many minor changes.   He is able to carry the movie, but even if he does excellent work, the amazing work by his fellow cast almost overshadows him. 

Maria Bello is a gorgeous woman and talented actress, and has the thankless role of a woman who cannot handle the situation.   She plays it with aplomb, going from cheerful, to stunned, to the so depressed she can't get out of bed.  

Tarrence Howard takes a very unexpected and wonderful turn as the emotional center of his family, playing a role that many times would be reserved for the female, but works so well as the father of his family that you buy it from the first moment to the end of the movie.  

Viola Davis plays the wife of Howard's sensitive type, and is the rock to the family.   She is unforgettable as the woman who daughter is missing and makes the final choices on what the Birch family will do to resolve the horror of their missing girl. 

Then we have Paul Dano and Hugh Jackman.  Both play their near leading roles with skill.   Dano has a very tough role.  As anyone who seen Tropic Thunder knows, you never want to go full retard. (Before anyone gets offended, that is the quote of the movie, and send the complaints to the producers of the movie) But Dano's LSD addled man-child really is a amazing performance, both showing the raw emotion and the complete confusion on why he is being singled out for Keller's desperate drive to find his daughter. 

Jackman's character of Keller could of easily been cartoonish, and to many Hollywood directors, he would be.   He is a God fearing man who feels duty bound to protect his family, thus is a prepper once you see his basement, a recovering alcoholic, and is willing to do horrible things so that he might have a chance to get his daughter back.   Any of these traits with a lazy director or actor could be made excessive, but it hangs in balance and you feel compelled for Keller, even when he makes bad choices.  

Also, Melissa Leo (who been in in dozens of TV shows and movies, most famous most likely for "Homicide, life in the street") is unreconizable under her makeup, but plays the villain with just the right taint so that near the end, you look into those eyes and you know she is capable of what she done. 

Well crafted storytelling

I will be first to say that plot issues exist in this movie.   However the movie is well told and compelling as we move forward.  Late in the third act it gets a little over complicated (But not as disappointing as say, Sunshine) but the well shot, top performances and general plot movies it along for much of the movie.   It also has little things that made me enjoy the film.  

Of the main families, one is white, one is black, and its not even mentioned.   They are both middle class and nothing feels wrong with it.  It also handles some subjects that movies almost always get wrong.

God, faith, and and prepping

God and faith is something that Hollywood movies almost always get wrong.  Most of the time, you can tell the director feels that it so quaint that it is silly.   However in this movie you see a deeply flawed person in Keller who has faith, and while he in no way lives up to the heights of his faith, you can see that his faith is one of the foundational eliments of his life and it how he is able to hold on for the most part.   And is never condescending.  

Also Keller is a Prepper, and while I expected him to be made into a fool for it, it is just shown as part of his charicter, a man who is dedicated to protect his family, and the crisis when his daughter goes missing and what steps he is willing to get her back. 

Plot Issues

At times the plot goes for too many plot twists, this movie would of been a truly great film except that it falls apart a bit at the end, with a suicide as the cutoff moment  where it goes from perfection to a flawed masterpeace.  Everything up to and including that moment is brilliant, and then it falls to "Just" a 7 out of 10.  

This is a adult movie.  I am not talking about it being Porn, but it is a movie intended for mature adults and how they deal with horrific situations.   There is no teen romance angle, or other distractions, it is just pure storytelling of a investigation and two families being torn apart by the seismic forces of a missing member.   It is a top five movie of 2013.