Prisoners - For all its attempts at complexity I found this torture thriller lacked something. I liked the parallels that the characters represented to different aspects American culture and beliefs. Jackman comes closest to shouldering the movie, without ever seriously threatening to make it work. Still, he makes a better fist of his role than Gyllenhaal whose character seemed more like an exercise in acting, rather than a real person. The last, convoluted hour is full of plot holes and random thriller signifiers – cases of snakes, child mannequins, scribbled maps of insoluble mazes.
This film is trying to be Art, but in fact it is just more pulp fiction. A movie that leaves you only talking about the acting performances, rather than the stark storyline of moral decay in modern society that it tries to portray. The best I can say about it was that it was solid, but not great. Not one I'd ever want to watch again. 6/10