Prisoners (2013 film)

Prisoners

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Produced by
Written by Aaron Guzikowski
Starring
Music by Jóhann Jóhannsson
Cinematography Roger Deakins
Edited by
Production
company
Alcon Entertainment
8:38 Productions
Madhouse Entertainment
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures (US)
Entertainment One (UK)
Release dates
Running time
 153 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $46 million[2]
Box office $122.1 million[2]

Prisoners is a 2013 American thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay written by Aaron Guzikowski. The film has an ensemble cast including Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo and Paul Dano.[3]

The plot focuses on the abduction of two young girls in Pennsylvania and the subsequent search. At the 86th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Cinematography.

Plot

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) and his wife Grace (Maria Bello) attend a Thanksgiving dinner at the home of their friends, Franklin (Terrence Howard) and Nancy (Viola Davis) Birch. The children go for a walk in the neighborhood and approach a campervan that is parked outside a house nearby. There is music playing, which suggests there is somebody inside. After dinner, both families' younger daughters, Anna Dover and Joy Birch, go missing.

Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is informed and starts a search. He arrests the driver of the campervan, which is now parked up at a gas station. The young man, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), has the IQ of a ten-year-old, and appears confused when being questioned at the police station. His vehicle is searched by forensics but nothing is found relating to the girls. Pursuing other leads, Loki discovers a corpse in the basement of Father Patrick Dunn's house. The priest (Len Cariou) admits that he killed the man because he confessed he was "waging a war against God" and boasted of killing sixteen children.

As the search continues, Dover is informed that Jones has been released and attacks him outside of the police station. Jones whispers to him, "They didn't cry until I left them." Since Loki won't re-arrest him, Dover abducts Jones by himself, locks him up in an abandoned apartment building and begins torturing him until he cooperates with the help of a reluctant Franklin.

At a candlelight vigil for the girls, Loki sees a hooded man acting suspiciously, who flees when Loki approaches him. Later on, the man breaks into both families' houses but leaves without doing anything. Loki follows Dover to where Jones is being held prisoner but doesn't find him, as Dover fabricates a story about stopping over in the building so he's able to drink to ease his suffering without his wife knowing. A store clerk recognizes the man from an e-fit and reports him to Loki after seeing him buying children's clothing. The suspect, Bob Taylor (David Dastmalchian), is later arrested at his home, whose walls are covered in drawings of mazes. Loki then finds crates filled with maze books, live snakes, and bloodied children's clothing, including items belonging to the missing girls after Dover confirms it. At the police station, Taylor confesses to the abduction but he kills himself before revealing any more information. The police conclude that Taylor was a fantasist and had no involvement with the disappearances; he stole the clothes from the girls' homes and bloodied them with pig's blood to recreate abductions.

Dover continues to torture Jones, who then starts denying he is Alex Jones and claims he escaped from a maze. Dover visits Jones' aunt, Holly (Melissa Leo), who tells him that Alex is the way he is because he had an accident with snakes her husband kept as pets when he was younger. She also says that she and her husband were religious until their young son died of cancer. Back at the police station, Loki becomes frustrated with getting nowhere with the case until he matches a maze Taylor drew whilst in custody to the maze necklace worn by the man Patrick Dunn killed in his basement.

Suddenly, Joy Birch is found drugged but alive. Dover visits her in the hospital to ask for information. Her memories are confused but she mumbles, "You were there" to Dover, instantly making him a suspect. He then realizes that Joy may have seen him at the Jones' house when he visited Holly, and runs from the police. Loki searches for Dover at the apartment building and discovers Alex. Dover then goes back to the Jones' house to get information from Holly, but she pulls a gun on him. She explains that, before her husband left her, they abducted many children as part of their "war on God" after their son's death. Alex was the first child they abducted, followed by Taylor. Holly imprisons Dover in a concealed pit in her yard, where he finds a whistle belonging to his daughter.

Loki goes to Holly's house to tell her that her nephew has been found. He finds a photograph of Holly's husband wearing the same maze necklace found on the body in the priest's basement, making him her missing husband. Loki finds Holly with Anna and they exchange gunfire: he is wounded, and Holly is killed. Loki then rushes Anna to the hospital where she reunites with her mother. Alex, revealed to be Barry Milliband in the newspaper, is reunited with his parents after surviving the torture. A day later, Loki returns to the Jones' house where the authorities have begun excavating the property. As the other investigators depart for the night, Loki hears Dover's labored whistling from the pit.

Cast

Reception

Box office

Prisoners premiered at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival and was released theatrically in Canada and the United States on September 20, 2013. It was originally rated NC-17 by the MPAA for substantial disturbing violent content and explicit images; after being edited, it was re-rated R for disturbing violent content including torture, and language throughout. Prisoners opened in North America on September 20, 2013, in 3,260 theaters and grossed $20,817,053 in its opening weekend, averaging $6,386 per theater and ranking #1 at the box office. After 77 days in theaters, the film ended up earning $61,002,302 domestically and $61,124,385 internationally, earning a worldwide gross of $122,126,687, above its production budget of $46 million.[2]

Critical response

Prisoners received very positive reviews from film critics, who praised the performance of Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 81% based on 227 reviews, with a rating average of 7.3 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states: "Prisoners has an emotional complexity and a sense of dread that makes for absorbing (and disturbing) viewing."[4] On Metacritic, another review aggregator, the film has a score of 74 out of 100 based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[5]

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." The film was a second runner-up for the BlackBerry People's Choice Award at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, behind Philomena and 12 Years a Slave. Gyllenhaal received the Best Supporting Actor of the Year Award at the 2013 Hollywood Film Festival for his "truly compelling, subtly layered" performance as Detective Loki.[6]

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times offered a mixed review, rating the movie 2.5 stars out of a possible 4. He described Jackman's performance as "monotonous" and the film generally as overlong and "rather ridiculous (despite the fact that it clearly wants to be taken super-seriously)". Nonetheless, Ebert praised Gyllenhaal as "great here in a role that must have looked rather uninteresting on the page" and Villeneuve who "gives us a couple of truly suspenseful scenes."[7]

Top ten lists

Prisoners was listed on various critics' top ten lists. [8]

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result
Academy Awards March 2, 2014 Best Cinematography Roger Deakins Nominated
American Society of Cinematographers February 1, 2014 Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association December 16, 2013 Best Cinematography Nominated
Critics' Choice Movie Awards January 16, 2014 Best Cinematography Nominated
Empire Awards March 30, 2014 Best Thriller Nominated
Hollywood Film Festival[6] October 21, 2013 Best Supporting Actor Jake Gyllenhaal Won
Key Art Awards[10] October 24, 2013 Best Teaser – Audio/Visual "Ticking" Bronze
Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards[11] February 15, 2014 Best Contemporary Make-Up Donald Mowat and Pamela Westmore Won
National Board of Review December 4, 2013 Best Cast Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano and Dylan Minnette Won
Top Ten Films Won
People's Choice Awards January 8, 2014 Favorite Dramatic Movie Nominated
San Diego Film Critics Society December 11, 2013 Best Cinematography Roger Deakins Nominated
Best Performance by an Ensemble Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Aaron Guzikowski Nominated
Satellite Awards February 23, 2014 Best Cinematography Roger Deakins Nominated
Best Editing Gary D. Roach and Joel Cox Nominated
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Jake Gyllenhaal Nominated
Saturn Awards June 26, 2014 Best Make-up Donald Mowat Won
Best Supporting Actress Melissa Leo Nominated
Best Thriller Film Nominated
Toronto International Film Festival September 15, 2013 People's Choice Award Denis Villeneuve 3rd Place
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association December 9, 2013 Best Ensemble Nominated

Soundtrack

The Prisoners soundtrack, composed by Johann Johannsson, was released on 20 September 2013.[12]

No. TitleArtist Length
1. "The Lord's Prayer"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 2:31
2. "I Can't Find Them"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 4:09
3. "The Search Party"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 2:54
4. "Surveillance Video"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 3:34
5. "The Candlelight Vigil"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 5:10
6. "Escape"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 5:44
7. "The Tall Man"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 2:47
8. "The Everyday Bible"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 2:23
9. "Following Keller"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 2:11
10. "Through Falling Snow"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 2:44
11. "The Keeper"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 2:49
12. "The Intruder"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 3:11
13. "The Priest's Basement"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 2:48
14. "The Snakes"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 2:51
15. "The Trans Am"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 2:37
16. "Prisoners"  Jóhann Jóhannsson 6:59
Total length:
 55:00[13]

References

  1. ↑ "PRISONERS (15)". E1 Films. British Board of Film Classification. September 13, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "Prisoners (2013)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Hugh Jackman to Star in Vigilante Thriller PRISONERS for November 2013 Release". Collider.com. March 15, 2012. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Prisoners (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixter. Retrieved January 1, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Prisoners (2013)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
  6. 1 2 Feinberg, Scott (September 23, 2013). "Jake Gyllenhaal to Receive Acting Honor at Hollywood Film Awards (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  7. ↑ Ebert, Roger (2013). Prisoners, accessed 2016-03-01
  8. ↑ http://www.metacritic.com/feature/film-critic-top-10-lists-best-movies-of-2013
  9. ↑ http://www.indiewire.com/article/indiewires-editors-and-bloggers-pick-this-top-10-films-and-tv-shows-of-2013
  10. ↑ "Catalog: Audio/Visual – Winners". Key Art Awards. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  11. ↑ Giardina, Carolyn (February 15, 2014). "Dallas Buyers Club, Bad Grandpa Win at Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Awards". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 4, 2014.
  12. ↑ "Prisoners Soundtrack". SoundtrackMania.com. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
  13. ↑ "Prisoners Soundtrack". Soundtrack.Net. Retrieved August 1, 2014.

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