Denis Villenueve
Prisoners

America in “Prisoners” is a country in disarray, a forsaken land, a gray moor seemingly condemned to a progressive decline for an unstable future. Don't be fooled by the fact that one of the two leading actors on the poster is Hugh Jackman: Mr. Wolverine is capable of acting and I'm sure he will prove it in the years to come. “Prisoners” is not the usual blockbuster but one of the most beautiful dramatic thrillers of recent years which, just to provide a point of comparison, brought to my mind the tension of Fincher's good “Zodiac” and the plot of Eastwood's “Mystic River”, although it doesn't reach the heights of the latter. Months later, I consider this film the cinematic surprise of 2013. In terms of quality/expectations, it is the best and the fact that it grossed a meager (600,000 €) in Italy and no one has reviewed it on debaser... Well, all of this compels me to vomit the following.

A typical American "Mulino Bianco" family is destroyed by the kidnapping of their daughter. In a flash, the father of the missing girl and a young detective on the rise emerge forcefully. The two are water and oil: they can't stand each other and are mutually convinced that the counterpart is a hindrance to a happy ending. It results in a paradoxical race between the two, in which they will obstruct each other despite having the common denominator of finding the girl and capturing that enigmatic bundle of random negative adjectives that, for no apparent reason, has rippled the placid oily surface of a quiet life. I won’t reveal anything about the plot because it is very well-constructed and succeeds in keeping the viewer's attention high, despite the film's runtime reaching two and a half hours.

“Prisoners” examines characters in crisis who can't even trust themselves. Human beings who believe they are free are imprisoned in constant doubt, paranoia, and continuous suspicion towards others; the insecurity of this contemporary American society has reached such high levels that, in the end, everyone is so frightened and insecure that they are not even sure of what they are doing. A family does not unite and strengthen in pain but crumbles. The policeman is not the dutiful, infallible superman but an ambiguous and unconventional guy who uses personal and questionable methods. The film is interesting precisely because the protagonists are misaligned from the Hollywood stereotypes that tend to extremization and simplification. In these kinds of cinematic works, indeed, the good guys are often immaculate and pure to an annoying white, so shiny and fake. In Villeneuve's cinematic work, however, the father is a person who heavily violates the law: to give foundations to a conviction unsupported by facts, he will go in search of the truth without hesitation to raise his hands. An eye for an eye because in this fucking society you either do this or you succumb. The American dream of a land full of opportunities and blah blah blah no longer exists, but only fear for security that can't even be found in one's own backyard. And the bad guys are sons of bitches of the lowest and proven bastardy, this is clear, but their color as a whole is not a black without appeal.

The two factions just described meet in the dirtiest color there is, gray, and I appreciate this painting by Denis Villeneuve because it is certainly the best way to photograph the ambiguous nuances of reality. The main actors are very well centered. Jackman embodies the parent who brushes madness from the pain caused by the kidnapping: in constant readiness to vent his anger on anyone who dares to hinder him. And with a hammer in hand, trust me, the character is very convincing. His wife (Maria Bello) breaks with a loud crack, a dry branch, and embraces sloth of senseless living for an almost infinite depression. The detective (Jake Gyllenhaal, “Donnie Darko” if the name doesn’t tell you much) revels in the character of the ambiguous, capable and unconventional cop and perhaps his performance would have deserved a nomination. Even the tumor mass of this work (the kidnapper/s) is well-rendered and the set design and cinematography succeeded on several occasions in raising the hair on my arms, while I do not hold a particular memory of the soundtrack.

I believe it is a film enjoyable for those who want to enjoy a solid thriller, identify with the furious character of the father, and simply see how a well-acted, realistic story full of tension will end. At the same time, I am convinced that the Canadian Villeneuve's work is more profound and ambitious: the story as an excuse to try to represent, with the discomfort and complexity of the protagonists, the dark pessimism and that lack of trust in others that seems to have affected the United States of America in the last decade. Indirectly, themes such as religious fanaticism, the use of torture are treated with critical cynicism, and all this only makes the work even more complete and mature as a whole.