A Movie Review: Prisoners

Prisoners. The Dover and Birch families are close friends. My sense was that Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) and Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard) have known each other since at least their high school years -- though I could be wrong there. The two families get together one Thanksgiving at the Birch family house. The two younger girls of the two families get permission to head off to the Dover family house with the expectation that at least one of the older siblings will join them. Unfortunately, there is some miscommunication and the two young girls head off on their own.

The two girls are kidnapped and the spotlight immediately falls on a driver of a van that was seen in the neighborhood. The driver is Alex Jones (Paul Dano), who also happens to have the mental capacity of a 10 year old.

Without any evidence that Alex Jones committed the crime, he is released from custody. Keller can't accept this and kidnaps Alex Jones.

There are some interesting reviews out there that really dig into this movie: for example, the movie really takes it out on Christians -- Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) and a priest named Father Patrick Dunn (Len Cariou) -- while promoting secret societies -- Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal). I can see the point, the Christians are seen as making rash decisions while the detective is seen as being methodical. Father Patrick Dunn is also a sex offender, but perhaps can be seen as playing a demented role of hero.

The following contains spoilers.

After finishing the movie, I initially started to think: this movie makes no sense. It only makes sense if Holly Jones (Melissa Leo) was the driver of the van that picked up the two young girls. Holly Jones (the "aunt" of Alex Jones) is revealed to be the true kidnapper of the children. But then when the van was at the gas station, Alex Jones was definitely the driver of the van.

After reading reviews, I've come to the conclusion that Alex Jones was complicit in the abduction of the two girls. Does it mean that he deserved the treatment that he received from Keller? Considering how Holly Jones was able to control the minds of those she abducted over the years, I think it is rather clear that Alex Jones was just as much a victim as the two young girls. My one problem with this conclusion and I think it is also mentioned in the movie: how can someone with an IQ of a 10 year old go around driving a van?

I do love how all the suspects in the movie are tied together. And I love watching Detective Loki carefully put together his analysis.

I actually think that this is a movie that one might benefit from reading a few spoilers so that the focus can be on how this vast interconnected story plays out.