When HCX went to see Prisoners last week we had no idea what to expect. There had been an advert or two but all we really knew about the film was that it was a thriller starring the beautiful Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman. To be fair, that’s reason enough to see any film. But, putting our love for Jake and Hugh (first name terms, of course) to one side, after seeing the film Her Campus realised how good Prisoners really was.
The plot centres on the disappearance of two little girls and sets out the police investigation alongside the enquiries of the grief-stricken father (Hugh Jackman). Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) runs his investigation completely by the book, but as the film goes on, he becomes more and more affected by the case, resulting in the first climax of many towards the end of the film. Hugh Jackman’s character, Keller Dover, is disappointed by the restrictions the law places on the detective and is consumed by relentless determination to find out what happened to his daughter – he immediately takes matters into his own hands. The plot arc of this film is always surprising the audience and it was refreshing to see a thriller avoiding, and sometimes mocking, most of the clichés of the genre – at one point Keller is set up to be the kidnapper but the plot moves swiftly on.
As thrillers go, Her Campus thinks there’s never been one quite like this. The film progresses the sense of anticipation and suspense just keeps building and gives us two false climaxes of the drama – it never stops us guessing. It reaches the line between thriller and horror but never crosses it, unlike some thrillers which end up just being a bit of a comical disappointment. The performances of these two Hollywood veterans were fantastic. These characters really played two sides of the same coin – both felt the same way about the situation but one tried to follow the letter of the law while the other became a law unto himself.
The only thing that may not be to your taste is the violence shown in the film (Rated 15). The violence is not gratuitous and it is a central to the plot, but, there are moments that are hard to watch – it’s not really a curl up on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn movie. The violence actually presents some of the more interesting moral questions being asked by the film.
Also, for you Jake fans out there, if you don’t like a man with tattoos it may bother you – he’s covered in them. Although, he is a character the audience knows they can trust from the very beginning –you can always trust a detective with a neck tattoo; he’s clearly hardcore.
All in all, if you want to see an interesting film that makes you think, or a film with two hotties in, then HCX definitely recommends this film to you.
Photo Credits: http://ia.media-imdb.com, http://lasvegas.informermg.com, http://www.awardsdaily.com