Prisoners

Admittedly I wasn’t going to see this (at least not for a long while) but I wasn’t doing anything the other day and figured what the hell, I’ll give it a look.  Well that dumb luck move worked out because this is pretty great.

Keller (Hugh Jackman) and his wife Grace (Maria Bello (Payback)) go to Thanksgiving dinner at Franklin (Terrence Howard (Red Tails)) and Nancy’s (Viola Davis (The Help)) house.  At some point during the evening their daughters suddenly go missing without a trace.  Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is then called in to solve the case.

This movie was done very well.  I don’t want to go into it too much because I think it’s better if you just see it.  The acting is very good, the story works fine and the cinematography is nice.

The thing about this picture is that it’s completely unoriginal.  But hang on a sec, ‘cause that’s not bad at all.  

There are plenty of good films out there that don’t explore new ground (in fact most don’t) or have many unique aspects to them.  For example, Under Siege and Sudden Death are Die Hard rip offs but they’re incredibly enjoyable and I welcome both of them into the fold instead of leaving them out in the cold never to be seen again.  Prisoners is a combo of a bunch of thrillers.  They put a little of The Vanishing in there, a dash of Death Wish and a bunch of film noir.  It takes most of the parts you like about these missing persons, vigilante and detective mysteries and blends them together.

So you’ve seen this movie a million times before (or at least parts of it) but this is a very solid version of one of these thriller types (which is extremely hard to come by).  It sucked me in and I was with it all the way.  I love how you go from suspect to suspect and think “oh, this has got to be the guy” with each one.  The film plays with you but in the best possible way.

What makes me so happy is that this picture should’ve sucked.  There are a ton of bad or mediocre thrillers out there that all seem the same.  They usually have a good setup but a half to two thirds of it is shit.  Prisoners should’ve been just another crap mystery movie that ends in disappointment and then over the next couple of days you forget you even saw it.  But they crafted a real gem here.  This film doesn’t take forever to get things rolling (only the first 10 minutes or so is setup, as opposed to 30 that far too many movies use) and then I was actually a little upset when it was over because, believe it or not, they end on a decent cliffhanger.

I really enjoyed this.  I think you should see it.

Oh, one last thing.  There were no shaky camera shots; at least that I noticed or could remember.  These sonsabitches actually put the fuckin’ camera down.  Holy shit.  Thank you director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies) and cinematographer Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old Men).  See all you other filmmakers out there?  You can create an exciting and intense picture (this really is pretty intense by the way) and hold the camera still at the same time.  So anyone out there that still shakes the camera like a motherfucker, please stop.  I really can’t stand that shit anymore.