Prisoners (2013) - Film directed by Denis Villeneuve

* * * 1/2

Not my normal type of film, I'm not overly interested in films that show the worst of humanity in a terrifyingly realistic way but if you are this is the film for you. It's the only film that I can honestly say haunted me a little bit when I left the cinema. It's difficult to watch because it deals with issues of child abuse, torture, loss of a child, and everything in between but if you stick with the film it is very good but not one to watch over and over again.

Firstly I would like to talk about the cast because this is probably a huge selling point as it stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman but there are also brilliant actors such as Viola Davis and Paul Dano. The cast is immensely talented and despite the big names, which I find often means that they are going for famous rather than good actors, the acting is a strong point. I am interested to see if people get nominated for Oscars after this film because it is quite early in the season. I doubt anyone will win but there will be mentions of them.

I said that there was child abuse and torture but actual the director handled this very delicately. You do not see much actually happening but, especially for the torture, you can see the results and often there are sound effects. If you do not like gore or difficult topics then the film might be quite harrowing but if you're just a bit squeamish then you don't need to worry too much about lots of awful things being shown. 

The plot was fairly standard, a police officer works very hard to uncover two kidnapped girls while the families of the girls go into a negative spiral. There was a message about a war against God, because taking children away from their parents makes them lose their faith. I disliked this religious element and thought that the events did not need an explanation, in fact they would have been scarier if there was none because then it would seem as though anyone could have committed them. A wonderful element was the fact that you really weren't sure who was the culprit of the kidnap although by the end I thought I had worked it out I was never sure. 

In summation this is a really good film and I would recommend people who aren't overly sensitive to watch it but it isn't a lasting film because I can't imagine anyone wanting to watch it many times.