Prisoners

How far would you go to save someone you love? That’s the question that constantly arises throughout Prisoners. Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is your pretty standard family man. A husband and father, his life takes a downward spiral when his daughter and the daughter of his friend Franklin (Terrence Howard) are kidnapped in their neighborhood on Thanksgiving Day. Their lives are immediately sent into a frenzy as they struggle to cope with the notion that they may never see their children again, meanwhile police detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) sets out to solve the case before things turn from bad to worse. Time is of the utmost importance and the longer this goes on, the more desperate people become.

Prisoners is half crime thriller, half emotional drama, and all about a father doing everything in his power to save his loved ones. When the police fail find the children, Keller takes matters into his own hands and kidnaps the main suspect, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), who he believes knows where they are. As the days go by and things become dire, the interrogations become more and more severe. Hugh Jackman does a phenomenal job at capturing the emotion of a man who is on the verge of losing everything. His performance is fierce and conveys both anger and sadness as he bloodies Alex into telling him what he wants to know. It’s something he does out of necessity.

His portrayal comes in stark contrast to Terrence Howard’s, who I find somewhat lacking. Franklin is essentially in the same situation as Keller with his daughter missing as well, and yet is nowhere near the same passion Hugh Jackman provides. Oftentimes you forget that his family is even in the picture. Prisoners is very centric on Jackman’s character and Howard is simply there to play devil’s advocate. He certainly is the more refrained of the two and believes in letting the police do their work and that justice and good will prevail in the end.

The third player in this thriller, and the part that stutters the most, is Jake Gyllenhaal’s detective Loki. He’s never lost a case before and doesn’t intend to start now as searches down every path and investigates every lead. There are some decent twists and turns throughout, but the film trudges along at a snail’s pace, trying to prolong every scene with unnecessary dialogue or side stories that make a bit of sense in the overall picture but still don’t quite fit the puzzle. There’s this entire second suspect investigation that goes on for way too long and loses sight of what the film is truly about.

Prisoners gives us some of the best emotional performances this year and while the story could have been simplified, it doesn’t take away from the heart of the film.