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Prisoners is a 2013 American thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay written by Aaron Guzikowski. The film has an ensemble cast including Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, and Paul Dano.

The plot focuses on the abduction of two young girls in Pennsylvania and the subsequent search for the suspected abductor by the police. After police arrest a young suspect and release him, the father of one of the daughters takes matters into his own hands. The film was a financial and critical success, grossing US$122 million worldwide. It was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2013, and at the 86th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Cinematography.

Plot[]

In Pennsylvania, the Dover and Birch families celebrate Thanksgiving. That evening, Anna Dover and Joy Birch go missing. Detective Loki responds and arrests Alex Jones. During interrogation, Loki realizes Alex is intellectually disabled and his RV contains no forensic evidence of the missing children. Meanwhile, Alex is released to his aunt Holly. Anna's father Keller Dover assaults Alex outside the police station.

Convinced of his guilt, Keller kidnaps and holds Alex captive in an empty building he owns. A reluctant Franklin Birch, Joy's father, accompanies Keller in interrogating and torturing Alex over the course of several days, who cryptically talks about escaping from a maze.

Loki investigates local sex offender Patrick Dunn, where he finds a corpse in a hidden cellar. Dunn, a former priest, reveals he killed the man after he confessed to abducting children. During a vigil for Anna and Joy, Loki chases and fails to apprehend a hooded figure who then burgles the Dover and Birch residences. Suspicious of Alex's disappearance, Loki follows Keller to the empty building but finds nothing. Loki then arrests Bob Taylor, who has been purchasing a plethora of children's clothing. Loki detains Taylor and discovers the walls in his home are covered in maze drawings. He stumbles upon several locked crates filled with snakes and bloody clothing. Taylor confesses to the kidnappings and begins drawing mazes. Loki assaults him, demanding the location of the children. Taylor gains control of another officer's gun and commits suicide.

The Dover and Birch families identify photos of the bloodied clothing as their children's. Keller visits Holly to apologize for assaulting Alex. He learns she and her late husband adopted Alex after their son died of cancer. Meanwhile, Loki discovers a similarity between Taylor's mazes and a necklace belonging to the corpse in Dunn's basement. He realizes that many of the bloody clothes were store-bought and soaked with pigs blood. He also finds Taylor's footprints below a window at the Dover house, along with Anna's sock.

Joy is reunited with her parents, and is hospitalized; the two children were drugged and staged an escape, but Anna was caught. When Keller asks Joy for information, she remembers little, but says she saw him there. Keller realizes she saw him at Holly's house and departs. Loki travels to Keller's building to find him, but instead finds Alex.

Keller arrives at Holly's and she holds him at gunpoint. She informs that her husband's corpse was found in Dunn's basement, revealing they abducted children as part of their "war on God" to avenge their son's death. Alex was their first abduction and Taylor was their second. Holly drugs Keller and imprisons him in a hidden pit in her yard, where he finds his daughter's whistle. Loki arrives at Holly's house to inform her Alex has been found. Seeing a photo of her late husband with the maze necklace, he searches for Holly, who is giving Anna an injection. Loki kills Holly in a shootout, and rushes Anna to the hospital.

Anna and Joy visit Loki in the hospital to thank him. Keller's wife acknowledges that her husband will be arrested if he is found. Later, Loki returns to Holly's house, where he faintly hears a whistle blowing.

Cast[]

  • Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover
  • Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki
  • Viola Davis as Nancy Birch
  • Maria Bello as Grace Dover
  • Terrence Howard as Franklin Birch
  • Melissa Leo as Holly Jones
  • Paul Dano as Alex Jones
  • Dennis Christopher as Mr. Jones
  • Dylan Minnette as Ralph Dover
  • Brad James as Officer Carter
  • Zoë Soul as Eliza Birch
  • Erin Gerasimovich as Anna Dover
  • Kyla-Drew Simmons as Joy Birch
  • Wayne Duvall as Captain Richard O'Malley
  • Len Cariou as Father Patrick Dunn
  • David Dastmalchian as Bob Taylor
  • Jeff Pope as Elliot Milland

Production[]

Aaron Guzikowski wrote the script based on a short story he wrote, involving "a father whose kid was struck by a hit-and-run driver and then puts this guy in a well in his backyard". That short story was partially inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart". After he wrote the spec, many actors and directors entered and exited the project, including actors Christian Bale and Leonardo DiCaprio and directors Antoine Fuqua and Bryan Singer. Ultimately Guzikowski would credit producer Mark Wahlberg for getting the project on its feet, stating, "He was totally pivotal in getting the film made. That endorsement helped it get around." Principal photography began in Georgia in February 2013.

Reception[]

Box office[]

Prisoners premiered at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival and was released theatrically in Canada and the United States on September 20, 2013. It was originally rated NC-17 by the MPAA for substantial disturbing violent content and explicit images; after being edited, it was re-rated R for disturbing violent content including torture, and language throughout. Prisoners opened in North America on September 20, 2013, in 3,260 theaters and grossed $20,817,053 in its opening weekend, averaging $6,386 per theater and ranking #1 at the box office. After 77 days in theaters, the film ended up earning $61,002,302 domestically and $61,124,385 internationally, earning a worldwide gross of $122,126,687, above its production budget of $46 million.

Critical response[]

On review aggregator web site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 253 reviews, with a rating average of 7.30/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Prisoners has an emotional complexity and a sense of dread that makes for absorbing (and disturbing) viewing." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

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." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that Gyllenhaal was "exceptional" and that "Villeneuve takes his unflashy time building character and revealing troubled psyches in the most unlikely of places."

The film was a second runner-up for the BlackBerry People's Choice Award at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, behind Philomena and 12 Years a Slave. Gyllenhaal received the Best Supporting Actor of the Year Award at the 2013 Hollywood Film Festival for his "truly compelling, subtly layered" performance as Detective Loki.

Reviews have not been all positive. Writing in The New Republic, David Thomson declared that the film was "weary after ten minutes" and furthermore "hideous, cruel, degrading, depressing, relentless, prolonged, humorless, claustrophobic, and a mockery of any surviving tradition in which films are entertaining". A mixed review came from Sheila O'Malley of RogerEbert.com, who gave the film 2.5 stars out of a possible 4. She wrote that Jackman's performance grew "monotonous" and that the film sometimes verged on pretentiousness, but was redeemed by a few excellent suspense sequences and Gyllenhaal's performance, whose "subtlety is welcome considering all the teeth gnashing going on in other performances".

Audiences[]

Audiences polled by CinemaScore initially gave the film a grade "B+" on an A+ to F scale, but Warner Bros asked for a recount by the service and later said the film received a grade "A–".

Top ten lists[]

Prisoners was listed on various critics' top ten lists.

  • 1st – Nigel M. Smith, Indiewire
  • 2nd – Rex Reed, The New York Observer
  • 5th – Justin Robar, BridgewatersFinest
  • 6th – Kyle Smith, New York Post
  • 7th – James Berardinelli, Reelviews
  • 7th – Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  • 9th – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
  • Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Accolades[]

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.(s)
Academy Awards March 2, 2014 Best Cinematography Roger Deakins Nominated
American Society of Cinematographers February 1, 2014 Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association December 16, 2013 Best Cinematography Nominated
Critics' Choice Movie Awards January 16, 2014 Best Cinematography Nominated
Empire Awards March 30, 2014 Best Thriller Nominated
Hollywood Film Festival October 21, 2013 Best Supporting Actor Jake Gyllenhaal Won [3]
Key Art Awards October 24, 2013 Best Teaser – Audio/Visual "Ticking" Bronze [4]
Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards February 15, 2014 Best Contemporary Make-Up Donald Mowat and Pamela Westmore Won [5]
National Board of Review December 4, 2013 Best Cast Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano and Dylan Minnette Won
Top Ten Films Won
People's Choice Awards January 8, 2014 Favorite Dramatic Movie Nominated
San Diego Film Critics Society December 11, 2013 Best Cinematography Roger Deakins Nominated
Best Performance by an Ensemble Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Aaron Guzikowski Nominated
Satellite Awards February 23, 2014 Best Cinematography Roger Deakins Nominated
Best Editing Gary D. Roach and Joel Cox Nominated
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Jake Gyllenhaal Nominated
Saturn Awards June 26, 2014 Best Make-up Donald Mowat Won
Best Supporting Actress Melissa Leo Nominated
Best Thriller Film Nominated
Toronto International Film Festival September 15, 2013 People's Choice Award Denis Villeneuve 3rd Place
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association December 9, 2013 Best Ensemble Nominated

Soundtrack[]

Main article: Prisioners (soundtrack)

The Prisoners soundtrack, composed by Jóhann Jóhannsson, was released on September 20, 2013.[6][7]

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

References[]

  1. "PRISONERS (15)". British Board of Film Classification (September 13, 2013).
  2. 2.0 2.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Mojo
  3. Feinberg, Scott (September 23, 2013). "Jake Gyllenhaal to Receive Acting Honor at Hollywood Film Awards (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 4, 2014.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.
  4. "Catalog: Audio/Visual – Winners". Key Art Awards.
  5. Giardina, Carolyn (February 15, 2014). "Dallas Buyers Club, Bad Grandpa Win at Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Awards". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 4, 2014.Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.
  6. "Prisoners Soundtrack".
  7. "Prisoners Soundtrack".

External Links[]

Wikipedia
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Prisoners (2013 film). The revision history lists the authors. The text on Warner Bros. Entertainment Wiki and Wikipedia is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA).
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