Brief Reviews: Prisoners

January 25th, 2014, 2pm

It was °C. The wind was calm.

If you’ve considered seeing Prisoners, watch it during the daylight hours.

As psychological/crime thrillers go, this is on the longer side, but it’s so enjoyable to watch that you don’t hardly notice. What you do notice is that every scene occurs at night, Jake Gyllenhaal never calls for backup soon enough, and Hugh Jackman gives his best performance. Yes, possibly ever, and yes, including all of those Wolverine movies.

This is a movie that explores the dark and terrifying side of humanity—the things we do to each other, and for each other. There are lots of moments where you think, “I’d never do that… would I?” For a potentially dark horse Oscar contender (only in Cinematography for Roger Deakins, and up against the Coen brothers for Inside Llewyn Davis), Prisoners is a refreshing change from the rest of the pack: it pushes your mind with both content and your conceptions of the actors involved (except Paul Dano, who is literally always creepy).

Definitely one if you want to wrap your head around something, or at least try to.


Amal said thanks.

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Valerie Stimac

Constraints create lots of great things, diamonds and creativity among them.

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