Prisoners (2013)
Riveting story of people going to any length to save a kidnapped daughter.
Presentation:
Roger Deakins and Denis Villeneuve pair up for a fantastic collaboration showing us why script is everything. Lighting is lovely as always with mostly natural overcast, no special action sequences, and yet we are on the edge of our seats the whole time for this memorable detective thriller.
Analysis:
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a somewhat similar detective from Zodiac, this time obsessive and asocial. However I didn't feel his character was as developed as it could have been and he takes more of a bystander perspective from the majority of the film. Hugh Jackman is also morally ambiguous teetering on the lines of torture porn, and also not being completely developed either. Characters feel a little distant and this is perhaps due to the pacing of the powerful script, which carries the story despite the performances. There's just not a whole lot of emotional connect with the characters, also partly because the child is adbucted so suddenly. This is different as it shifts the focus on the riveting pacing as opposed to emotional elements.
Conclusion:
A good unpredictable ride with an impressionable ending that should leave you satisfied.
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Recommendations
Denis Villeneuve’s artistic validation.