The beauty of thriller films is that they start with an incident, proceed as if we all can predict also they are meeting our expectations, and suddenly it starts to break them. Suspension and twists in the story seem to blow our minds and make us speechless. Often we get to watch movies based on the recommendation from our friends passed on to us, and we often get bored with seeing the story moving slowly or too simple in the beginning, but when the story starts to show its true colors we get hooked and can afford no breaks, sometimes not even for a piss.
Prisoners is a crime thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve and it was from a screenplay written by Aaron Guzikowski. Denis Villeneuve's recent movie Dune was a great success, people loved that work too much, on seeing his name I remembered that movie.
In short, if I want to give a little bit of an idea about the story then I might start with the disappearance of the kids, yeah, two-family most likely neighbors spending their holiday together. Two kids from two families disappeared or we can say kidnapped from seeing the suspicious evidence presented before us. Even the police caught someone, an RV driver, he was there and was running away while police caught him. Surprisingly that man turned out to be a person with an IQ level of ten years kid, he can barely understand what was asked of him let alone kidnapping. But we all know, thriller films love to play with us through this kinda character, right? Psychopath killers!
Due to the lack of solid evidence, they couldn't keep hold of him and had to let go. But the parents, can they accept the only possible lead to their kids getting away? Here comes the character Keller Dover, the father of Anna, one of the kidnapped kids. This character is filled with anger and desperate to find his daughter, it's obvious but he was way more desperate than the other parents. He kidnapped Alex, that boy in that RV. Dover takes him as his own prisoner and tortures him on and on to get out information about his daughter. On the other hand, detective Loki is also stressed to find a way out, he has been digging and digging to find those disappeared kids. So how's this going to end?
So this was simply the kickstart of the movie, if discussed furthermore then the thriller and suspense waiting for its audience are likely to get spoiled. But I wanna express some of my impressions and feelings throughout the movie, as the name says Prisoners the whole story justifies this name. Some are physically imprisoned and some are mentally, also the maze that chains one after another may confuse you at first but in the end, it does get cleared. The ending scene ends in an ambiguity, most of the audience may think about further incidents, and also a part of the audience may choose something else like I did. Seems confusing? Okay, I will stay away from this.
Dover played the character exactly what every father would intend to do losing their kids, and can go to any extent if needed, that's what he did while some of the audience may find his actions brutal too. Well, the endings did change many things but I will stand with the sentiments. On the other hand, Detective Loki, I was impressed with his calmness and patience, and the way he handled the situations. And the characters I haven't spoken much about, like Alex's aunt Holly, and Bob Taylor also have some impact that I am not willing to expose as they might turn into spoilers.
In short, thriller films are best to keep a mystery, the audience needs to experience the suspense and twist on their own like I did and got satisfied with all the characters, direction, and story. In conclusion, a must-watch for all the thriller or mystery lovers. Will love to rate it 8 out of 10, Happy Watching!
