Prisoners

If I had to pick one word to describe Prisoners.. it would be brutal. Everything about this movie is great.. the writing, score, direction, cinematography, EVERYTHING.  First off, I had no idea how stacked this cast was. Aside from the phenomenal performances from Hugh Jackman & Jake Gyllenhaal, I was blown away by Paul Dano and Viola Davis stole every scene that she was in. The film is long, but the story never stops moving and really tugs at your heart to feel each character’s deep pain & uncertainty when it comes to unraveling this mystery. Prisoners makes for an exhilarating watch because you can never quite figure out who you can trust.  Paul Dano and Hugh Jackman are my favorite performances by far because they are both terrifying, but in completely separate ways.  I really love that I got to go into this blind. I had not seen anything outside of the infamous broken sink scene. The score is intense, making this viewing even more haunting as you continue to watch. Prisoners is written in a way that allows the viewer to be the detective, which I love. It actually feels like you’re apart of this mystery trying to solve the crime in real time. The cinematography is absolutely stunning. The scene involving the drive to the ER in the rain was one of my favorites because I felt as disoriented as the person driving. The film has a beautiful, subtle color palette, that adds onto the cold, brutal nature of not only the physical setting but emotions that every character has. I can’t really say anything bad about this movie, and I will encourage every person I know to watch this. It’ll be interesting to see how it holds up on a second watch, but for now consider me hooked.