Prisoners

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How far would you go to find someone you lost? Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) shows that even the most honest and spiritual men can lose their sanity and moral standing in time of ambiguity. But in his defense, how sane can you expect a father to be when he's looking for his kidnapped daughter, and when the man with an obvious connection to the crime is allowed to walk free?

After a happy Thanksgiving celebration between neighbors, Anna Dover (daughter of Maria Bello and Jackman's characters) and Joy Birch (daughter of Viola Davis and Terrence Howard's characters) disappear during an unsupervised stroll through the neighborhood. When the Dover's teenaged son recalls seeing a suspicious RV earlier in the day, a search ensues and the vehicle is found. Inside is a man, Alex Jones (Paul Dano). Because of the lack of evidence in the RV and the fact that Jones has the IQ of a 10-year-old, he is released 48 hours later, to the extreme frustration of Mr. Dover. Convinced Jones is the man who kidnapped his daughter, Keller abducts Jones and tortures him for information, consistently hitting a dead end.

Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is assigned to finding Anna and Joy. Having solved every case he's been assigned to on the force, the task proves extremely difficult when he can't manage to get to the bottom of this so quickly. He follows several leads throughout the film's 2.5 hour runtime, even resorting to suspecting Keller himself.

Prisoners is a prime example of how adding minutes to the runtime doesn't make up for a somewhat weak resolution. I won't go so far as to say that the climactic confrontation between Keller and the abductor was a disappointment, but after all the buildup and events of the previous two hours, I was expecting a lot more in terms of excitement. 

Kept afloat thanks to a great cast (notably Jackman and Dano) and an enigmatic script, Prisoners builds up a beautifully complex story, only to leave a few issues not fully or clearly resolved once its belated ending finally arrives. But this didn't take away that much from my enjoyment of the movie. For the most part, I was enthralled and captivated. Also, there's a pretty clear giveaway of who really was responsible for the kidnapping. When you see it, don't overthink it. 

Rating: 4/5