Prisoners

A film set in a town in Pennsylvania. Two families eat together at Thanksgiving. Two small girls go outside to play in the street and do not come back. There had been a camper van parked there. The police find it and take the man inside into custody. He is released. His intelligence is very low, there is no evidence, and the prosecutor cannot hold him. Keller does not accept it. He is one of the girls' father; he takes the man, shuts him in an empty building and tries to make him talk. From there the film runs on two lines. Detective Loki works the investigation; at the same time Keller runs his own method and goes a little further every day. What the narrative is interested in is not abduction but limits: the film keeps the audience beside Keller and then shows where he has gone with them, and reaches no easy verdict. Religious imagery runs throughout. Prayer, confession and the idea of punishment are inside both the father and the investigation. The Loki character is never explained. His past, his tattoos and his anger are never told, and the choice works in the film's favour. The cinematography is by Roger Deakins and the film takes place almost entirely in rain, snow and low light; he was nominated for an Academy Award for it. The last shot closes on a single sound and gives no image. Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo and Paul Dano are in the cast. Denis Villeneuve directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes long, heavy, morally uncomfortable thrillers. Who it is not for: anyone who cannot take violence involving children; the film does not lighten once in two and a half hours.