TheRetroCritic

Well, the Summer's officially over and it's looking like the actually good but slightly more depressing movies are starting to come out. And you know what? I'm totally ok with that. In the vein of Zodiac or even Se7en , Prisoners is a new thriller/whodunit with an all-star cast in which two little girls go missing, a bunch of people go looking for them and dodgy suspects are hinted at throughout. I know it sounds pretty standard but Prisoners is by no means a standard, been-there-done-that flick. Surprisingly, the film is one bleak, intense and brutal experience with fascinating, complex characters and so many twists and turns that its maze motif is entirely justified. Hugh Jackman plays the father of one of the missing daughters, a guy we're told likes to be ready for the worse, well: he sure wasn't ready for that one. Which is why the way the film develops that character is so interesting: making him do questionable things yet keeping his humanity intac