During a Thanksgiving celebration, the young daughters of Keller (Hugh Jackman) and Franklin (Terrence Howard) go outside – and don’t return. Keller’s eldest son remembers seeing an old van parked nearby, and this becomes the starting point for the investigation led by Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal). The van is found that same evening with a mentally impaired Alex Jones (Paul Dano) inside, but his interrogation yields nothing – the guy has the intellect of a ten-year-old and claims to know nothing about any girls. The police are forced to release him, but Keller is convinced that Alex knows more than he’s saying and takes justice into his own hands…
The film was in the preparatory stage for several years, during which Antoine Fuqua and Bryan Singer were listed as directors.
Psychological thrillers are one of the most popular genres “among the people,” with the added bonus that, with a certain amount of desire, something more can be made of them. Canadian director Denis Villeneuve (his previous film, “Incendies,” is in the top 250 of the main film portal on the planet, IMDb) is trying to do just that with Aaron Guzikowski’s screenplay (“Contraband”) – to add a second layer to the crime-detective story and, if possible, hide it as deep as possible, so that the output is almost a philosophical parable about good, evil, faith, and, where would we be without it in our time, inner demons and what feeds them.
There is no doubt that “Prisoners” was initially a purely genre thriller – it’s a solid but slightly “far-fetched” detective story in the spirit of the late nineties. Even in its attitude to technology, the plot seems stuck somewhere at the turn of the century: on the one hand, there are omnipotent computers storing complete text archives of every “sneeze” in the area for decades, on the other hand, an awkward disregard for the possibility of tracking a character’s movements, say, by their mobile phone. However, even with these shortcomings, the intrigue is twisted very successfully – all the pieces of the puzzle will come together for attentive viewers not much earlier than the characters realize it.
Among the actors considered for the main role were Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, and Mark Wahlberg. The latter eventually served as one of the film’s producers.
However, “Prisoners” is not only a solid thriller, but also a psychological drama in which Villeneuve mixes several lines at once. Keller is absolutely sure that he heard something from Alex that only the kidnapper could know (and the viewer heard it too), but the boy is clearly not a genius and could hardly have pulled something like this off. At the same time, Keller’s wife wanders around the house like a shadow, demanding action from her husband – and he is forced to go to extremes. Franklin is his best friend and has also lost his daughter, but does he trust Keller enough to rely on his guesses about Alex and start torturing a beaten, frightened guy who doesn’t even try to resist? Detective Loki sympathizes with the grief of the parents who lost their children, but cannot allow emotions to take over reason and logic – the only time Loki loses control of himself ends in tragedy.
Of course, such conflicts exist in purely genre films as well, but here they are written thickly and deeply, Villeneuve brings them to the fore at the first opportunity, and the actors greedily sink their teeth into them. The most striking role, of course, went to Hugh Jackman – he is a strong man under unprecedented pressure, he creaks, cracks, crumbles into pieces, but does not break. The plot gives Jackman several powerful, red-hot scenes that he plays with great aplomb and without any falsehood.
The Performances
Nevertheless, the main acting work of “Prisoners” should still be attributed to Jake Gyllenhaal – his role is not so flashy and expressive, but at the same time more complex and subtle, and Gyllenhaal creates one of the most understandable and humanly sympathetic investigators in the history of detective cinema.
Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki
His Loki is restrained, cold, and detached, but works to the point of exhaustion, and suppressed feelings break out in a nervous tic (an excellent detail!) – a true guardian angel, letting all the pain of this world pass through him. Even if there was nothing in “Prisoners” besides the acting of Jackman and Gyllenhaal, the film would already be worth recommending, and here everything is one to one – a real parade of planets.