Prisoners (2013)

PRISONERS  (2013)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Denis Villeneuve
    Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Terrence Howard,
    Maria Bello, Viola Davis, Paul Dano, Melissa Leo
This story takes place in one of those American towns where from a distance the houses all look the same. Closer up you can tell that's not the case, but it still looks like a dreary place to live. It looks like the kind of place where the sun never shines, where if it's not already raining or snowing, it's only a matter of time before it does. It's Thanksgiving Day when two girls who live in this town go missing. Their parents are understandably distraught, but one of the dads (Hugh Jackman) is more than that. He's a full-on survivalist who will stop at nothing to get his daughter back, or to inflict righteous hell on the emotionally challenged creep who he thinks took her. What follows is intense, disturbing, and as the story plays out, increasingly perverse. It doesn't entirely add up. Some key characters make some real bad choices, and not always real convincing ones. But in the process it raises some interesting questions. How far would you go, what laws would you break, what moral principles would you be willing to piss on, to protect what you value most? "Prisoners" doesn't provide any clear-cut answers, but it doesn't cut you much slack, either. It's something to think about.