MOVIE REVIEW -- THE PRISONER

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) and his family attend a Thanksgiving dinner at the house of their neighbors, Franklin and Nancy Birch; that afternoon, both families' young daughters, Anna Dover and Joy Birch, go missing. A police hunt finds an RV which had been parked outside the house, and when Detective David Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) tries to confront the driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), he attempts to escape, but is arrested.

Loki's investigations uncover a corpse wearing a maze pendant in the basement of a local priest, who says he had killed the man who claimed to be "waging a war against God" by killing numerous children.

Alex Jones is found to be developmentally disabled, having the IQ of a ten-year-old, and despite many hours of aggressive questioning, the police cannot link him to the missing girls, so he is released. Dover confronts Jones, who whispers to him "They didn't cry until I left them", although no one else hears it. Dover abducts and imprisons Jones in an abandoned apartment building, and tortures him for days, but obtains no further information.

During a candlelight vigil for the girls, Loki sees a hooded man acting suspiciously. When Loki approaches the man for questioning, he runs away. Both girls' houses are broken into, apparently by the same man, who is now a suspect. A clerk at a local store reports the man had been buying different sizes of children's clothing. This suspect, Bob Taylor (David Dastmalchian), is arrested at his home, where the walls are covered in drawings of mazes. In a back room, Loki finds crates filled with maze books, live snakes, and bloodied children's clothing. The Birches and Dover positively identify some of the items of clothing. Detained, Taylor confesses to the abduction, but before giving any more information, he seizes one of the officers' handguns and kills himself.

Dover continues to torture Jones, who finally says he is not Alex Jones, and that he escaped from a maze. Dover visits Jones's aunt, Holly (Melissa Leo), and brings up the topic of mazes, but Holly only says Jones does not talk much ever since an accident involving snakes when he was young.

The blood on the children's clothes is found to be pig's blood. It is concluded that Taylor had been abducted as a child, and had been play-acting recreations of abductions using a true-crime book which involves unsolvable mazes; the clothing was items that had been stolen during the break-ins, and Taylor had no real involvement in the abductions.

Days later, Joy Birch is found drugged, having escaped, but Anna is still missing. When Dover visits Joy in the hospital to ask for information, she mumbles "You were there." Dover runs off, believing he now knows where his daughter is. Expecting to find Dover there, Loki goes looking for him at his apartment building, where he finds Jones.

Dover however, had realized that Joy overheard him at the Jones' house. He arrives at the Jones' house, intending to torture Holly for information about his daughter. Holly invites him in and pulls a gun on him, revealing that she alone was responsible for the recent abductions. She and her husband had abducted many other children as part of their own particular "war on God" for letting their young son Alex die of cancer. The man now known as Alex was the first child they abducted, followed later by Bob Taylor, and they were probably the only two whom they did not murder. Holly shoots and imprisons Dover in a pit under an old car in her yard; there, he finds a whistle that belonged to his daughter.

Loki goes to Holly's house to tell her that Jones was found. There is no answer at the door but he hears someone inside, so he enters. When he sees a photograph of Holly's husband wearing the maze pendant, Loki draws his weapon, and searches the house, discovering Holly administering a poison to Anna, who is being kept in a back room. When he confronts her, she shoots at him, but he returns fire and kills her. Loki rushes Anna to the hospital, where she soon recovers. Jones is reunited with his real parents.

Outside the Jones residence, a police team stops digging for the night. They tell Loki it will take weeks because the ground is frozen. Loki hears the faint sound of a whistle coming from where Dover was imprisoned; he initially hesitates, but then hears it again and turns to investigate as the screen cuts to black.

Prisoners is a 2013 American thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve. The film has an ensemble cast including Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal,Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, with Melissa Leo, and Paul Dano. The plot focuses on the abduction of two young girls in Pennsylvaniaand the search to find them. The film is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

Critical response

Prisoners received positive reviews from critics. The film currently has an 82% approval rating on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 219 reviews. Its consensus reads: "Prisoners has an emotional complexity and a sense of dread that makes for absorbing (and disturbing) viewing." Christopher Orr of The Atlantic wrote: "Ethical exploration or exploitation? In the end, I come down reservedly on the former side: the work done here by Jackman, Gyllenhaal, and especially Villeneuve is simply too powerful to ignore." Ed Gibbs of The Sun Herald wrote: "Not since Erskineville Kings, in 1999, has Hugh Jackman appeared so emotionally exposed on screen. It is an exceptional, Oscar-worthy performance." Metacritic provides a score of 74 out of 100, based on 46 reviews, indicating 'Generally favorable reviews.'

Prisoners was also a second runner up for the BlackBerry People's Choice Award at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, where it came behind Philomena and 12 Years a Slave. Jake Gyllenhaal was selected to receive the Best Supporting Actor of the Year Award at the 2013 Hollywood Film Festival for his performance as Detective Loki as "a truly compelling, subtly layered portrayal of a man tasked with the impossible and driven by the demons of his own past. Jake has given a myriad of outstanding performances throughout his career. But his work in this film achieves a new level of complexity, as reflected in the rave reviews the film has received."

Here to watch the first trailer!

Here to wath the second trailer!

source: http://www.wikipedia.org