Prisoners (9/10)

This was a movie that really caught me by surprise. I went in with no knowledge of what it was and I didn't even know this movie exist until it got here.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, with a running time of about 2 and a half hours long, I enjoyed every minute of it. Villeneuve really took his time with each shot to capture the feel of the environment, the wintery weather and trees and rain and snow. I felt the chill. And I felt the ominous atmosphere the movie presented.

The cast was awesome, especially the main cast. Hugh Jackman as a simple family man was truly believable with that goatee and hair (as opposed to Brad Pitt in World War Z). The desperation on his face in his acting was completely felt. Viola Davis fared slightly better than Maria Bello (and thankfully she has erased my memory of her in Grown Ups 2 with this performance), but both women portraying devastated roles and in despair were wonderful.

But the way Villeneuve directed Jake Gyllenhaal was truly a work of art. It felt as if these two has worked together before and reminded me of the partnership between Ryan Gosling and Derek Cianfrance. This performance will be a very memorable one for me by Gyllenhaal.

I haven't seen a good thriller that's so thrilling throughout the movie in a long time, and even longer for a psychological thriller albeit it wasn't completely one. But the whole mood of how Villeneuve shot it terrified me a lot.

Even though I guessed correctly who was responsible for the kidnapping half way through by putting pieces of clues together, that did not diminish the thrilling factor nor the enjoyment factor at all. So that's why this was so well done.