"Kids gone for more than a week... have half as good a chance of being found. And half for a month, almost none are found alive."

During Thanksgiving two girls disappear. The police is doing their best to find them, and when the man most suspected walks free, father of one of those girls decides to take the justice in his own hands.

Of course that's just a simple explanation of the plot of Prisoners, which was an Oscar nominee. Didn't win, but in my opinion was the best one of those who were nominated. But then again, who am I to say, right? I'm not part of the academy, I have no say. Also I haven't seen rest of the nominees. Oops. 

Anyway, I love dramas that are so dark they basically become thrillers. One example of these is Jagten aka The Hunt, which was also nominated, but for a ... foreign film? I really don't know the right terms - probably why I wouldn't be accepted as part of the academy. Anyway, Prisoners is a dark drama. It's so dark that it's not basically a thriller anymore, it is a thriller. And it's a one damn good thriller. It's not really scary, but it' really agonizing, which I think is the best quality of a good thriller. Scary is ... you know, a bit more like a horror movie that makes you stay up all night. Agonizing movie is really painful and you can't really relax while watching it. It may haunt in your thoughts for a while, but it really doesn't get you scarred for life.

Prisoners is definitely going to, if I may use my own words again, "haunt in my thoughts for a while". I mean, it's really something that has been always bothering me, you know. Someone disappearing is definitely more scary idea compared to someone being randomly murdered. Because if they are kidnapped, you have no idea how brutally they can be handled. And this is why Prisoners felt so agonizing. When the girls are nowhere to be found, the worst possible possibilities run through my mind. I don't know which is worse: if they are found dead, or if the kidnapper had something else in mind.

It doesn't take long to realise that the end of the movie isn't going to be a happy one. Imagine the happiest possible ending: kids are found and that's that, everyone is happy. But if a movie is nominated for an oscar, if it is as dark as it is almost from the second it begins... you can't see a happy ending. You can't see that coming. And to be honest... I was kinda proven wrong. Not really, not completely wrong, but a little wrong. 

And the acting in this movie is amazing. Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki isn't as clichéd as I thought it'd be. I mean I expected a loner cop who does everything as well as he can but, you know, sucks at social activities and shit. Maybe he's a bit like that, but there was definitely something there that made him more like a human character than "a loner cop". And Hugh Jackman was as brilliant as always, more brilliant than I actually expected. I was close to tears more than twice. You can really feel the pain his characters feel.

Prisoners is an amazing movie, and I recommend everyone to watch it. It's so agonizing that it's almost lovely.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

9 / 10