Prisoners

We've seen a lot of Movies about people who do not trust the system and try to solve their problems on their own. One of the best examples is the excellent "Julee's Gold" starring Peter Fonda, but this an exeption. In all other cases of this type (see "History of Violence", "Law Abiding Citizen", "The Brave One"), the results are usually disastrous for all involved.

In this case, I will start from the end. I left the Movie with somewhat mixed feelings. I expected that after two hours of heavy and stifling suspense, and lots of unexpected twists in the plot (see guns hanging on the wall in the first act and shooting in the fifth act), at least we would get a conclusive ending, with no unnecessary tricks. Unfortunately, it did not happen.

So what have we got here? Two families, one black and one white, perfect, happy and symmetric (each of them has a little girl and a teenager), living in an ideal suburb, disturbingly clean. The black father, Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard) is a somewhat of a weakling. The white father, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is a religious man, a believer in the deep sense of the word, and also a survivalist who keeps a fully stocked basement, just in case. The women (Viola Davis, Maria Bello) are naturally housewives (at least that's what we are led to believe), satisfied with raising their perfect families.

But this idyllic picture is very misleading and everything falls apart in a moment when in the days before Thanksgiving, the ultimate family holiday in the United States, two little girls disappear of the face of the earth, the only lead being a white van seen parking on the street that girls played around. The police are called immediately, and with blatant incompetence release the only suspect caught (Paul Dano, "Looper"). The detective in charge of the investigation (Jake Gyllenhaal) has to confront his commanding officer in order to get even a short delay of release of the suspect, but the commanding officer probably just does not care, which leaves Keller Dover no choice but to take matters in his hands.

That is also the beginning of a debate about good and evil, reward and punishment, and whether the end does indeed justify the means. Is Keller a bad person who deserves punishment? After all, he has indirectly saved a retarded boy who was kidnapped as a child and got him reunited with his rightful family. Does making children disappear as a part of the war against God turn honest people demons, to quote the psychopath (Melissa Leo, "Homicide: Life on the Street")? And why, when the psychopath captures Keller, does he make no attempt to escape (a big strong man against a little old woman, so what if she is armed?) and he doesn't even try to trade the information about the whereabouts of her adopted/kidnapped son? That part was really puzzling to me. And why, when the detective is asked if he has children, he does not answer? And why did the writers decide, after all the twists and the manipulations of viewers' strained nerves, to finish the Movie the way they did? And most importantly - what are these irritating tics in Jake Gyllenhaal's eyes?