IMDB Summary : When Keller Dover’s daughter and her friend go missing, he takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts. But just how far will this desperate father go to protect his family?
What happens in one of the most anticipated family holidays, your little girl just went missing? Confused, panic and worried must be clouding your mind. It’s what happening to neighbors Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) and his wife, Grace (Maria Bello), Franklin (Terrence Howard) and his wife Nancy (Viola Davis). In the same night, police detective Loki (Jake Gylenhaal) take the case and suspected Alex (Paul Dano) might be kidnapping the two girls. But after a couple of days, there’s no real evidence that he’s the kidnapper. When he’s released from prison, emotional Keller try to stop him and heard some few words from the suspected man that the girls cried when he left him.
Disappointed and angry with police’s decision to release him, and pressured because his wife’s depressed, Keller decide to hostage Alex and forcing him to speak. But having an IQ of a 10-year-old makes Alex hard to answer questions and Keller about to lose his mind trying to find his girl, he’s about to lose his own reputation. In the mean time, detective Loki still tries to find the girls with his sharp mind and instinct. He found another young man that could be the suspect. Even Loki who was known to break every case he took seem to hit a dead end. Days go by, there’s a lot of digging stories and suspecting, you might think that there’s no real answer.
Prisoners (2013) is Denis Villeneuve next featured movie after Incendies (2010), has a smart storyline, suspenseful and intriguing. It gave leads to one hint to another, with no readable plot. Keller who’s father was a former jailer, gave reason to be angry and emotional enough to hostage a suspect, but drown on his own emotions to think clearly. There’s no question whether Jackman could kill Alex with his bare hands because of his previous heroic roles as Wolverine and similar roles. But the question is, will he be that frustrated enough to kill the guy? Hugh Jackman is backed with Jake Gylenhaal as detective Loki, a cool and reliable detective who knows his moves. Seems the only one who’s cool-headed, while everyone’s either sad, angry or a psycho. With a tattoo on his neck and his toothpick, Jake did gave a good impression of a cool hero in here, and such an eye-candy too (ah, yes).
Prisoners also have terrific actors as supporters, though they aren’t the real spotlight, but they performed really well. The Academy award nominee, Viola Davis, wasn’t exposing her potential too much. She was a kind-hearted wife of good man Franklin, which was played decently by Terrence Howard. Paul Dano, however, said so little and appear not much, but really powerful as Alex, who throughout the movie we couldn’t decide whether he is either innocent or evil.
This movie is a must see for you thriller-lovers and fans of Jake Gylenhaal and Hugh Jackman. Unreadable twist and plot makes us guessing until the end, without making it too spicy or too confusing, with a surprising answer in the end and all was served pretty neat. On the moral side, emotions can be misleading and makes us fall into deeper problems. It has quite a mysterious ending as well.
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