Prisoners Review

What Makes A Good Movie?

This may be the hardest movie I had to watch this whole year. No, not like how Rapture-Palooza was hard to watch, nothing can be THAT painful to endure. Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Terrence Howard, Maria Bello and Paul Dano, centers around the abduction of two little girls. The parents don't know where they are, the police aren't having much luck, and the only lead to go on is the owner of an RV the kids were playing on before they vanished. Unfortunately, the owner (Paul Dano), has the IQ of a 10 year old. None of the chargers will stick so, naturally, they have to let him go after 48 hours. That plot already is very dramatic and upsetting. Unfortunately for the audience, that is just the tip of the iceberg. Now the father of one of the little girls (Jackman), convinced the suspect is the abductor, decides to take the law into his own hands and kidnaps the mentally-challenged man, willing to do whatever it takes to get the truth out of him. The question that was in my head after seeing this was- What makes a good movie? When I think of all of my favorite films- Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, The Usual Suspects- I see a pattern. Movies are best when they tell a story that evolves. The story grows, the characters grow, the plot is an interesting, unique one that deserves to be told. Prisoners is a different story. The only thing this movie does is show how losing a child can completely ruin your life and the life of your loved ones. Don't be mistaken, this movie is not Changeling. It's not an inspirational tale about having the strength to never lose faith and mustering up the courage to live on after losing your child. Prisoners is dark, depressing, and lacks any real sense of redemption. The characters don't really grow, if anything all the characters do is wither up and slowly descend into a state of depression. Who would wan't to watch that? Who would want to slowly watch a seemingly happy family be torn apart and emotionally tortured, followed by a man physically torturing a mentally-challenged man. Apparently, I want to watch that. Prisoners is the best movie I've seen this year, which is really confusing. I don't really know how to describe this movie or recommend it. I can't really use the word "entertaining" because there was nothing entertaining about it. Which you think would be a bad thing, but it's not. This movie didn't have to entertain me for me to like it, it INTRIGUED me. That's an verb I haven't been able to use for a movie in a while. It grabbed me by my heart and kept squeezing and squeezing. The ensemble delivered some of the most realistic, gut-wrenching performances I've ever seen. Hugh Jackman seems to consistently become a better actor every time I see him. Jake Gyllenhaal does a great job portraying the determined cop. The rest of the cast does a great job as well, but I can't help but feel like they were all underutilized. Both the director and the writer are relatively new in my eyes, but they still both do a great job with the help of 10-time Academy Award-nominee Roger Deakins, once again proving to be one of the best cinematographers ever. Prisoners is the kind of movie that will stick with you forever, it sets out to make you feel. It wants you to feel horrible for these families, it wants you to feel morally conflicted when it comes to the torture scenes, and it wants you to feel lucky and appreciative for your loved ones. At least in my eyes, it achieved all it set out to do. Which begs the question once more, what makes a movie good? Prisoners effectively makes you feel emotions that no other movie has been able to, it may not have a lot of character development, it's story isn't as excellently crafted as most; it doesn't have a lot of the stuff that makes all the other great movies great, it's very different. However, it's still great. Final Rating- B+