Prisoners: A Review

by Mason Leaver

Denis Villeneuve is a director who is, in my opinion, criminally unrecognized. While his work has received great critical feedback, he is not the household name that he deserves to be. The man has an absolutely amazing career. The French-Canadian director started his career with a series of well received small budget films, such as Maelstrom (2000) and Incendies (2010). More recently, he’s directed films like Enemy (2013), Sicario (2015), Arrival (2016), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). He is now directing the highly anticipated adaptation of Dune. There’s no doubt that Villeneuve is one of the most prolific directors working today, producing six films in seven years, all very well received. But I feel that his first film in this six film stretch, Prisoners (2013), is perhaps his best, and also least appreciated. Prisoners is a film packed with quality performances, cinematography, and story, and it represents Villeneuve at his very best. 
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​Prisoners is the story of a father, Keller Dover, played by Hugh Jackman, searching for his daughter and her friend, who have gone missing on Thanksgiving day. Investigating the case is Detective Loki, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. The film follows the two men as they go to greater and greater lengths to find the missing girls. As Detective Loki dives deeper into the case, he must also reign in Dover, who begins a vigilante search for the girls. As the film continues the mystery unravels itself with plenty of fascinating twists and turns. The film is like Taken meets Zodiac. 

Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover

Prisoners has a phenomenal cast, and their talent is put on full display. Hugh Jackman is by far the most notable of them all. He portrays Dover as a man of faith driven to the edge, willing to do absolutely whatever it takes to get his daughter back. The rage that Jackman brings to the character is often reminiscent of his time playing Wolverine. Jake Gylennhaal also does a great job, but he is given less to work with than Jackman. While Jackman gets plenty of opportunities to go absolutely off the rails and push his limits, Gylennhaal only really gets one very brief moment to lose his cool. This is no fault of the film’s: it is in the nature of Loki to be cool and collected. But Gylennhaal works within the limits of the character to bring about a great performance, even if he cannot be as loud and attention grabbing as Jackman. Terrence Howard and Viola Davis also bring great performances as the parents of the other missing girl. While avoiding spoilers, be prepared to enjoy unsettling performances from Paul Dano and David Dastmalchian. 
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​Paired with the ever talented Roger Deakins (who also worked with Villeneuve on Sicario and Blade Runner 2049), the film is beautifully shot. While it’s not flashy, Deakins’ use of light and shadow creates an atmosphere that draws the viewer in. Some shots are nearly totally dark, save for small beams of light illuminating the subject. The lighting all feels very natural- no great differentiation in saturated colors. Instead, Deakins use a grounded style that makes for a “realistic” feeling to the dreary Pennsylvania landscape, homes and offices that highlights the most beautiful and brutal aspects of the environments we find ourselves in every day. Of course, this approach to drawing out interesting lighting from our everyday surroundings also plays into the themes of the film- what lies just beneath the surface of suburbia is very dark. The “every day” world is much more complicated than it can seem.

A use of Light and Shadow in "Prisoners"

Prisoners is a very dark film, forcing it’s audience to face some very difficult questions. One of the most prominent of these questions is the tension between the rule of law and frontier justice. Detective Loki, a man committed to serving and upholding the law, has to face a challenge to his principles as he sees the system failing. Every moment he is tempted to give in to his desire to ignore the law in order to find these children. Meanwhile Dover, a man of faith, beholden to a higher power, pursues a kind of frontier justice to rescue his daughter. The film does not answer the question of who is in the right here, it simply introduces us to this tension and asks us to wrestle with it. 
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Each of us has people in our lives who we say we would do anything for. Prisoners asks us if we truly mean that. Dover, in his frontier justice hunt for his daughter, resorts to horrible methods of torture. Yet he does what he does because he believes it is the only way to save his daughter, to protect what he loves most. The film asks us to question: is torture ever acceptable? Would we be able or willing to do what Dover does? Prisoners forces us to ask these questions and to see the reality of what torture is and where it comes from. 

Paul Dano as Alex Jones (left) and Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki (right)

Prisoners is some of Villeneuve’s finest work. The plot and performances are top-tier, and while it is a very long film at two and a half hours, Prisoners creates a tension so gripping but chilling that you cannot help but watch on. 

Viewers who enjoy Prisoners may also enjoy Zodiac and the HBO miniseries True Detective.