Looking at: Prisoners

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Elementary my dear...

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Gyllenhaal's Detective Loki and Jackman's Keller Dover often find themselves at odds.

Cable Television has no shortage of procedural cop drama mystery shows. Series like Castle, Bones, CSI, NCIS, and Law and Order are all, essentially, just modernized version of classic detective stories, albiet with much more sex and drama. They're about people solving crimes, and occasionally, examining how far those people are willing to solve those crimes.

Prisoners plays out like a long version of one of these shows. Were it to be an episode of CSI, it'd easily be one of their best, up there with the infamous Tarantino episode. It's an incredibly well thought out, methodical, and twisting journey into some really dark places.

Taken

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Paul Dano's Alex Jones is creepy, even against Jackman's violent nature.

The setup of the story is that on Thanksgiving day two young girls go missing. One is the daughter of Keller and Grace Dover (Hugh Jackman, Maria Bello) and the other is the daughter of Franklin and Nancy Birch (Terrence Howard, Viola Davis). The case get's picked up by superstar detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) who turns up Alex Jones (the always creepy Paul Dano). Alex is the prime suspect, but is released after no evidence is found and it's determined he couldn't do it due to his mental handicap giving him the intelligence of a ten year old.

Keller decides that, regardless of what people say, Alex is guilty. After hearing him say something cryptic, and witnessing the kid acting like a complete creep, Keller kidnaps Alex and interrogates him with increasing violence. Meanwhile Loki struggles to solve the case, clashing with a lack of evidence, uncooperative suspects, and even Keller himself.

There's a number of twists and turns throughout the movie, with a particularly great third act to tie it all together. The theme of running into dead ends and getting lost is reinforced with images of mazes littered through the movie, and it's an interesting level of uncomfortable to watch. You constantly want to know where the movie is going, and just when you think you figured it out you, and the movie, hit a dead end and are sent down another dark corridor.

More interesting is the parallel drawn between the various "prisoners". During the movie Keller's daughter is held captive, while he himself holds a man with the mind of a child captive trying to find her. It's interesting and uncomfortable to watch, going to a place that most cable TV shows wouldn't touch with a twenty foot pole.

Breaking the Woodwork

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The film repeatedly posits the question "how far is too far?"

On the technical side Prisoners is a great looking movie. Shots are expertly framed, and the lighting perfectly sets the mood in each scene. There's a pervasive mood of dreariness and morbid sadness, which helps to sell the serious nature of the film. Pennsylvania has never looked more depressing, and the late Autumn mood fits perfectly with the harsh nature of the situation.

A special mention goes to the audio work here. The sound design of Prisoners is fantastic. Music is used sparingly, and when it is the dark style of it, highlighted by high pitched strings, sells the hell out the scene. It creates a tense mood, never really letting you know what's about to happen, and it fits well with the maze-like structure of the movie. Special notice has gone into the sound effect work as well, with footsteps creating audible creaks, and there's an expert level of attention to detail in minor things like rainfall, the old and decrepit buildings, and background noises that help construct a scene. If Prisoners is supposed to be structured like an old radio detective serial, then it really shows in the sound design.

Not Wolverine

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Alex Jones with his aunt played by Melissa Leo.

On to the acting. Maria Bello and Viola Davis both do great work as the grieving mothers, giving diametrically opposed views on how people cope with loss. One mother just crawls into bed and sleeps the whole time, only waking to cry, or experience short bouts of hysteria. The other chooses to participate in the search, going to great lengths, even beyond the bounds of her own moral fiber. Both are great to watch, but Davis' performance as Nancy Birch is truly marvelous and she sells the hell out her character.

Paul Dano is a creepy looking dude, and he's often at his best when he exploits this. He's made a name for himself as the quiet, "there's something wrong with this dude" kind of character and his performance as the mentally handicapped Alex Jones is wonderful. He gives off an air of knowing more then he lets on, but it's all hidden in a tangled web of whatever is left of his mind.

Jake Gyllenhaal is one of my favorite working actors, and it's always a treat to see him at work. He manages to come across as a caring scumbag, a guy that wants to solve this case for his own reasons before anything else. He's greasy, he's scummy, but he's also professional and a damn good detective. Gyllenhaal also worked with the director on Enemy, released the same year, and his recent work in Nightcrawler has also been praised. He's been busy lately, and it shows.

Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard both do great work as the father figures, but it's Jackman's performance as Keller Dover is the real standout of the film. He's angry and violent, but also tired. He looks like a man at the brink of his sanity, but also struggling with the morality of what he's doing. You want to root for him, but at the same time his actions are so deplorable that you feel bad for doing so.

Heaven Sent

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By the end, everyone is broken and tired, no exceptions.

Prisoners is a great film, probably one of the best sleepers from last year. It's a dark, twisting tale that rewards patience. It may drag on at times, but it weaves a story that defies simple guesses. Anyone sick of procedural and copy/paste cops shows on TV, and yearning for a true mystery, owe it to themselves to check out Prisoners. It's sure to keep you captive all the way through.