TIFF Review: Prisoners (2013) – Denis Villeneuve (TIFF)

PRISONERS: Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Plot Summary from tiff.net:

“On an overcast Thanksgiving in suburban Pennsylvania, two neighbouring families gather for dinner. Food, drink, games, and stories are shared. But as the party begins to wind down, the youngest daughters from each household are nowhere to be found. Panic sets in as the parents remember the mysterious Winnebago that was parked on their street earlier in the day. What has happened to the children?”

– This review’s going to be brief because this film is better if you go into it with as little knowledge about it as possible.

– It deals with a subject matter that’s every parents worst nightmare…their child goes missing.  I think the majority of parents out there would do almost anything to get their child back, and that’s exactly what Hugh Jackman‘s character does.  Sometimes however, you need to sit back and think about if your retaliation is just as bad…this is what Hugh Jackman’s character made me think about.

– There are two sets of parents in the film and they both deal with the situation in different ways.  In real life I would think this would be the case as well.

– This is one of the most exciting thrillers I’ve seen in a while.  It’s a long film, but it doesn’t feel that way because of the continuous action and mystery.

– Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman are going to get all the attention for their performances in starring roles, but Melissa Leo and Paul Dano are both very good in supporting roles.  Melissa Leo’s always unrecognizable in her roles as she becomes a completely different person on screen, and in my opinion she stood out the most even with all the other strong performances.

Like I said above, PRISONERS is best to go into without knowing anything.  Even though the trailer is only a tiny bit of the film, I still think it gives too much away.  This has everything you want in a thriller as there’s no way you can take your eyes off the screen.  All the performances are excellent and each character was completely different.  I did however have some issues with some parts of it which kept it from being any better for me.  It’s interesting to look at different viewpoints of a film.  A reviewer I always look at gave this a 10/10, and said it’s one of the best films of the year.  I thought it was good…but nowhere near THAT good.

PRISONERS: 8/10