Prisoners
by Cheeto
Posted on 18 June 2021
Rating -
Prisoners is a 2013 American thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay written by Aaron Guzikowski. The film has an ensemble cast including Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, and Paul Dano. It is Villeneuve’s first English-language feature film. The plot focuses on the abduction of two young girls in Pennsylvania and the subsequent search for the suspected abductor by the police. After police arrest a young suspect and release him, the father of one of the daughters takes matters into his own hands.
Prisoners is a film that I put off watching for a few years, due to it coming out when I was around 13. At the time of its release, I was interested in big huge action blockbusters, not brutal, gritty thrillers. When I did get round to watching it, I was left speechless. The reason I was speechless? It was because I can’t believe that I hadn’t watched it earlier.
Like I said before, this film is very dark, very brutal and can be a hard watch at times. The reason why this makes the film so good is because it feels real, you can feel the emotions our characters are feeling, and this makes it easier for us (the viewer) to ‘understand’ the film and the characters themselves.
I think the performances by our main cast are brilliant, particulalry that of Hugh Jackman’s. It’s really as if his daughter has actually gone missing. I also love the way in which you can see his character deteriorate as the film goes on, he really does have a huge ark in which the actions of the film have made him almost a different person at the end of the film, from the start.
This film really does go into the human psyche, it shows man at his lowest with no other options, about how he reacts, and how he takes matters into his own hands. It also shows how far a parent is willing to go to have their child be safe, about how much of his own life he risks.
I love the third act to this film, it is a tense affair where we really don’t know what the outcome is going to be, the film also drops a huge bombshell, one that I truly didn’t see coming.
Overall, Prisoners is a dark and brutal film, that has a sense of hope through the acts of our main characters. How they don’t give up, how they keep on going. It truly is one of the 2010’s best, and I highly recommend you give this one a watch.
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