Hugh Jackman Explores Ethics in `Prisoners

`Prisoners made me a remarkable three-for-three of gripping films, while on board a United flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, last Sunday night.  I flew American on a flight to London, but it was clearly not made for such long hauls, because it had only scattered screens for films which we had to share among us passengers.  British Airways has individual screens, but the paraphernalia is old and both video and audio are shitty.  By contrast, United Airlines not only had much better technology, but also had better range of films to watch.  

Two couples, and their children, from a Pennsylvania suburb celebrate Thanksgiving together.  They live just houses apart, so when their young girls ask to go to the other house, the parents consent.  Except that as afternoon wore on, the two are nowhere to be found.  So the human drama is on.

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."

Reference: Prisoners.

My wife and I pray that God keep our daughter out of harm's way at all times.  But while I am wont to abide by police investigations, I can understand Hugh Jackman, one of the Dads whose daughter was kidnapped, going increasingly bananas in the failed effort, after failed effort, to find the two daughters.  But as Orr speaks to, film is a brilliant forum for delving into the stuff that makes us human, for better or for worse, and for engaging in difficult reflections about the ethics, and lawfulness, of the things we end up doing.

In a literal sense, the film has next to nothing on prisons or prisoners.  But, you see, it's a powerful metaphor for the things that are our very nature.  In the end, both girls are rescued, and they recover.  But true to the sub-ideal, frankly messy nature of reality, Jackman has gone missing.  We as the audience know what happened to him, but then Jake Gyllenhaal does not, as the screen fades to black.    

Melissa Leo

Melissa Leo was superb in `Frozen River, which my wife and I saw months ago.  But in short order, I see her in `Welcome to the Rileys, in `Flight, and now in `Prisoners (above).

Synchronicity, perhaps.