PRISONERS comes to us from Canadian director Denis Villeneuve in his first American feature and I guess that could be one of the main problems with the film. The entire thing screams foreign directors first film. Villeneuve is most famous for directing 2010s Incendies which was nominated an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and here you have Villeneuve setting up a deliberate pace that should come across as haunting and suspenseful but feels somewhat laboured and dull. Thats not to take away from several intense moments that work extremely well and do have you white knuckling and on the edge of your seat. Not quite as intense as Gravity or even Rush was but still quite intense. There is a lot to love about Prisoners however, the acting is top notch with Gyllenhaal being the standout alongside an also unrecognisable Melissa Leo who is fantastic. Jackman is good as the lead but seems to be trying a little too hard for his Oscar in some scenes. Maria Bello suffers the most as while she is passable in the film, her character is so poorly written that she spends most of the film being a sobbing mess. This is one of the main problems with the film; the writing. The second act is incredibly weak and long that once the film moves into its final act, youve worked out long before how it is all going to play out due to poor structuring problems. Elements are introduced that seem to come out of left field and have no relevance that ultimately play an important role in the climax but they are done in such an obvious and uninspired way that the ending doesnt come as much as a surprise as it should have. In the end PRISONERS suffers from a foreign director trying to bring this own directing style that doesnt quite gel with American sensibilities as well as huge structure problems result in a final act that should have been much more powerful that is really is. 3/5
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 06:14:03 +0000
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