Thursday, September 26, 2013

Prisoners (2013)

Director: Denis Villeneuve. Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano. 153 min. Rated R. Crime/Thriller.

Canadian director Villeneuve has done it again: similar to 2010's Incendies, he's created an heart-wrenching thriller about moral ambiguities, this time involving prisoner torture, the role of religion, and worst of all, the innocence of children. Yes, there are some minor story flaws, but the movie is so long, tense and taut, suspending disbelief is the least effort needed on your part. A domineering Gyllenhaal again performs the heroic cop role, and steals the show from (a somewhat struggling) Jackman, making the whole child abduction situation very believable, and extremely difficult to sit through. So consider yourself warned.

Mo says:
MoMagic!

2 comments:

  1. You know everybody has its own standards for movies ranking . To me when I can not guess the final in thriller-crime-mystery genre , so it would verify the movie is perfect and it happened here.
    I think there are other facts that amazed me. (may be spoiler from here !) The story of people when they are under such a huge pressure they would have potential to be devil . I was shocked when 3 parents tortured the boy just because they guess who might be involved!I couldn't believe that .....& another interesting thing was the father's deed. You see in this movie people who wants to execute the law by themselves (mojry ghanoon)and that's the point .The parents , The priest ....
    Also , I noticed that( in contrast to "Seven" or even" Silence of the lambs ) the hero (Gyllenhaal) wants to act alone. In all critical scenes he never gets the help from the other cups , crew or there is no team ,never calls anybody ,so his role as a hero was magnified more.But today , there is trend to Hero-Team or hero on the top pf a team , not just individuals alone . I'm saying it as a fact I got from the plot , not shows I didn't like it . In fact Gyllenhaal was very attractive and I agree with you he steals the show from Jackman ! To sum up : awesome movie. I never got bored in 150 minute. not at all.

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  2. Actually, a few critics questioned the concept of Gyllenhaal going into so many dangerous places, without asking for any help or back-up. They say the police would "never" act so rash and immature. But I thought it significantly added to the tension, and made the movie more enjoyable.

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