Prisoners 3/4 Seen in theater,

Released 2013. 
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Written by Aaron Guzikowski
With  Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano, Dylan Minnette, Zoe Borde, Erin Gerasimovich, Kyla Drew Simmons,  Wayne Duvall, 

The plot line is fairy run if the mill I thought.  Kind if like episode of Law and Order.  It seems more of a vehicle to help spell out the major themes of the film than an exceptional plot.  There are a few interesting plot events through out the film and it's not till the end that I became a little annoyed at the pedestrian story.

But the themes presented in this film are quite interesting and worthy of discussion.

First lets start with the title.  Prisoners is plural.  Well the obvious prisoner is the guy that is being held captive and being tortured. The kidnapped girls are prisoners of course, but their screen time is very small, so I wonder how much the filmmakers considered them to be prisoners of the film's title.  Then who?   I would argue that Keller Dover (played by Jackman) is the prisoner even though he walks around as a free man.  He is a prisoner to his anger and his fear and his self righteousness.

Another interesting topic is Dover's ambivalence towards the whole torturing situation.  I've heard many people state, understandably so, that if anyone ever touched one of their kids, they would castrate them.  (I'm using nicer language here).  Well here is a situation where a parent gets to follow through on that threat.  He doesn't castrate his man-child victim, but he does brutally torture him.  And clearly, it is not so cut and dry as you might think.  He doesn't torture the boy out of pure anger.  He wants to get something.   The daughters are still missing, so he needs information.  He tries to let the victim know that it will be all over if he would just tell where the girls are.  The man-child can't say, for reasons that are unknown to us.  In fact one reason could be that the man-child, Alex Jones, might actually be innocent and doesn't really know.  But the evidence is too convincing to Dover that  Jones knows something.

So how does Dover feel?  Well, on one hand he feels that this is the rightous thing to do  is for his own daughters good.  Plus he feels that Jones, because of the kidnapping, is not worthy on humane consideration, since he is barely human, this less than human idea is highlighted by the fact that the character has a emotional age of about 10 and is mentally handicapped.  Dover also might be enjoying this on some level.  He is shown to be an angry man, and this might be an opportunity to take out some of his aggressions on a "thing" that is not human and deserving of the punishment.  On the other hand, though he thinks that Jones is clearly guilty of something, he does feel anguish and remorse at his own actions.  It is all so wonderfully and beautifully ambivalent and unclear.

Now add on to all this turmoil of emotions that there is the distinct possibility that the man-child might actually be innocent, and Dover belatedly comes to realize this fact.

A whole other can of worms is if you put this film in context with what happened in Iraq.  It questions the accuracy of the information that comes from torture.

One incredible shot shows the dehumanization of Jones.  He is imprisoned in a wooden cage with only a hole to look in and consequently look out of too.  The shot is of him looking out of this hole with just the one red  eye staring out into the dark - like he is nothing more that a beast.  It reminded me of some old horror films.

Oh and the plot.  Two girls get kidnapped and Jones, the man child is a suspect.  He is released when the police find they have nothing to hold him for.  So the dad, Dover, takes things into his own hands.