Film: Prisoners

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Genre: Drama
Source: USA (2013)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Island Cinema
Grade: C

Despite a solid cast (and particularly nice turns from Jake Gyllenhaal and Terrence Howard, and a particularly scenery chewing performance from Hugh Jackman) and several tense scenes, at a certain point--well before the third act takes an eye-rolling turn towards the "Let's Tie It All Up with a Bow" tendencies of big studio films--Prisoners is just not as smart as it thinks it is. Whether that's an obvious clue that the audience will almost certainly identify well before Gyllenhaal's Detective Loki does, or whether that's the believability of Hugh Jackman's choices in the film, or any number of little details that add up to less than they should, the film just doesn't come together for me. I mean, Loki literally falls into a major plot point, and that kind of sloppiness just doesn't go very far.

It's not all bad. It's beautifully shot (Roger Deakins, you magnificent bastard, you've done it again) and contains a lot of nice moments.The whole film feels blue and cold, and that's the emotional state of characters, not just the physical, being reflected, so it works. And I did like a lot of the performances: Howard doesn't have enough to do, but what he does he does well. And the film even ends with a strong bit of editing, sound work, and final cut that are really effective in leaving an impression.

In the end, however, the film and the director think all its ideas are good, when really only about 60% of them are. The film meanders a bit too much, and its two and a half hour running time feel really drawn out for a film that is supposed to be about tension and a ticking clock. It feels like the film is trying so hard to be a David Fincher film that it loses its way. There is real tension, and there is real pathos, but after a while it just gets to be a little too much. It loses touch with reality and spends too much time in movie fantasy land to work. 

Alternate Film Title: "Snakes in a Chest! But Why?"