Prisoners: intricately plotted and unrelentingly tense

In the pulsating thriller Prisoners, two girls go missing, and one of their dads (Hugh Jackman) goes vigilante as the lead detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) struggles to solve the case.  Both men are driven and desperate, and they clash as they each race against the clock to find the girls, resulting in unrelenting tension for 2-and-a-half hours.

The tension comes from standard suspense devices (characters peering into basements and entering boarded-up rooms and dark hallways, prowlers slipping though a sleeping household, etc.), but there isn’t a hokey moment in Prisoners.  That’s a tribute to director Denis Villenueve, who directed Incendies (my top movie of 2011).  Plus, an intricately plotted story from Aaron Guzikowski adds a dimension to Prisoners and elevates it from a conventional thriller.   As Gyllenhaal’s cop proceeds through the whodunit, he encounters what we assume are dead-end leads and red herrings.  But everything – and I mean EVERYTHING – ties together at the end.  I sure didn’t see it coming.

The one aspect of Prisoners that didn’t work for me is that Jackman is dialed up all the way from the get go, and there’s little if any modulation in his performance.  I guess that may be the point of the character – he’s a tightly wound guy BEFORE his daughter appears to be abducted – and then he goes full-out maniac for over two hours.

Gyllenhaal is solid in the other lead role.   Terrence Howard is superb as the other dad, a guy  who wants his daughter back just as much, but is more passive, rational and empathetic (and consequently more interesting to me).   Viola Davis, Maria Bello and Melissa Leo turn in their expected fine performances.  And Paul Dano (perhaps his generation’s Christopher Walken or James Spader) is excellent in another of his weirdo roles.

2 thoughts on “Prisoners: intricately plotted and unrelentingly tense”

  1. we did not see the ending coming and that is the best part of the movie, i would see it again to see how it all falls together if it was not so disturbing to watch. but I am thinking of buying a whistle.

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