New in Theaters
Prisoners (Playing at the Durango Stadium 9)
You will be drained.
Emotionally spent, intellectually fatigued, give-me-a-moment-to-recover-before-I-get-out-of-my-seat drained.
That’s not the kind of film-going experience everyone desires, but if you’re up for the ride, “Prisoners” is a white-knuckle, near-masterpiece of a thriller. It falls short of greatness mostly because of too much editing-room generosity, with a running time of 153 minutes when about 130 minutes might have been more effective.
In an electric performance, Hugh Jackman delivers grounded, intense work as Keller Dover, a devoted family man who tells his teenage son the best advice he ever got from his own father was to “be ready.” Keller isn’t some doomsday survivalist spouting theories about the end of days, but his basement is stocked with packaged goods, jugs of water and gas masks.
You know. Just in case.
It’s almost always cloudy, raining or snowing in the working-class Pennsylvania suburb (Georgia stands in, convincingly so) where Keller lives with his devoted wife, Grace (Maria Bello), and their children: 14-year-old Ralph (Dylan Minnette) and 6-year-old Anna (Erin Gerasimovich).
Their best friends, the Birches, live just around the block. Franklin (Terrence Howard) is an easygoing nerd who pulls out the trumpet after Thanksgiving dinner. Nancy (Viola Davis) is his loving wife, and they have two daughters: Eliza, who’s about the same age as Ralph, and Joy, who’s Anna’s age and is her best friend.
The table is set beautifully in these early passages. Even as the Dovers and the Birches enjoy a warm holiday gathering together, we feel the danger closing in. Something as simple as the choice of music emanating from a beat-up old RV parked in front of an abandoned house, or the way a tree is framed in a shot of the Birches’ home feels ominous.
It’s an hour or two after Thanksgiving dinner when Anna asks if she and Joy can skip over to the Dover house on a quick mission. A simple act of miscommunication sets off a chain of events that results in frantic searches of the two houses, parents running up and down the streets calling out their daughters’ names – and then calls to the police and swarms of volunteers walking through the woods with flashlights.
Someone has taken the girls.
Your heart drops as you watch the mothers fall into near-catatonic states of despair. Nancy Birch sits mute in the kitchen, the dishes from Thanksgiving untouched. Grace Dover curls into a fetal position, prescription medication on the bedside table.
Franklin Birch is desperate to find his daughter, but Keller Dover is a man possessed. The man who always told his family he’d protect them, the man with the motto of “be ready,” allowed his daughter to be stolen, and he’s not about to stand by meekly and wait for the police to do their job.
Paul Dano, whose very presence in a film practically shouts “disturbing creep!” is Alex, an adult with the mind of a 10-year-old who is the prime suspect in the case, but there’s no concrete evidence to charge him. (Melissa Leo, who has become a go-to character actress for a certain kind of role, is a standout playing Alex’s aunt.) Jake Gyllenhaal’s Detective Loki, a loner with a strange, brooding manner, pleads with his captain to keep Alex in custody just one more day past the normal 48-hour waiting period, but Alex is released – and then Alex disappears.
The masterful script by Aaron Guzikowski takes us through a maze of plot complications and possible suspects, including a hooded weirdo who shows up at a candlelight vigil and a drunken former priest. Meanwhile, Keller is convinced Alex knows where the girls are, and he’ll gladly trade Alex’s suffering for that information.
Even though “Prisoners” revisits one ongoing confrontation one time too many and spends a little bit too much time on a particular red herring, there’s not a single scene that doesn’t contain great acting.
Hugh Jackman is such an effortlessly graceful onscreen presence, such an old-school movie star, that he might not get enough credit for being a fine actor. If Jackman’s ever given a more impressive performance, it doesn’t immediately spring to mind.
Everything in “Prisoners” is filtered through the lens of the legendary DP Roger Deakins, who favors blacks and blues and dark browns, often shooting through rainstorms and giving us the same distorted perspective as Keller, whose grief and desperation are taking him to a point where he might be beyond redemption even if he saves the girls.
“Prisoners” is built on biblical themes of faith, fallen believers, revenge and the nature of good vs. evil. Crucifixes dangle from rearview mirrors. Prayers are said before acts of violence. That disgraced priest is a key character in the puzzle. Two of the purest characters in the story are named Joy and Grace.
Many a house in this story is filled with warmth and light on one level -- and much darkness and doubt literally beneath the surface. There are three dwellings in this film with basements and/or cellars you’d never want to visit.
Even with the stretched-out running time, “Prisoners” is one of the most intense movie-going experiences of the year. You’ll never forget it.
Warner Bros. presents a film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Aaron Guzikowski. Running time: 153 minutes. Rated: R (for disturbing violent content including torture and language throughout) HHH½. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bpXfcTF6iVk
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
Still Showing
Durango Stadium 9
(Next to Durango Mall, 247-9799, www.allentheatresinc.com)
Frances Ha. (Wednesday only.) Frances (Greta Gerwig) lives in New York, but she doesn’t really have an apartment. Frances is an apprentice for a dance company, but she’s not really a dancer. Frances has a best friend named Sophie, but they aren’t really speaking anymore. Frances throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as their possible reality dwindles. Frances wants so much more than she has, but lives her life with unaccountable joy and lightness. Rated R. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ke7owylVeMg
Insidious Chapter 2. If you know what happened to the Lambert family the first time around, then understanding how it happened probably makes sense to you. If not, it’s still just really scary. Rated PG-13. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBbi4NeebAk&feature=player_embedded
The Family. A mobster and his wife (Robert DiNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer) have trouble laying low with their family in the witness protection program. Rated R. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nwZNypYmPFE
Riddick. Vin Diesel is back in the third installment of what was supposed to be a cult movie nine years ago. There’s just no telling what will work. Rated R. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bAPvv9gFnbk
Getaway. A formulaic thing in which Ethan Hawke races around an Eastern European city racing against the clock to avoid some catastrophe or other. Rated PG-13. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hM7BB16PkAw
Planes. If they can make it talk, they’ll make a movie out of it. This one has planes. They talk. Rated PG. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch39vLdQi1g&feature=player_embedded
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. The next book-to-film installment in this latest mega-gazillion-dollar moneymaker. Rated PG. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w6aYjbpBm-E
Elysium. All the rich folks move to a paradise in the clouds while the poor folks wallow in squalor back on Earth. Some seek a better life. Rated R. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oIBtePb-dGY
We’re the Millers. Jason Sudeikis creates a family from a bunch of derelicts to cover his drug-running activities. Rated R. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0Vsy5KzsieQ
Gaslight Cinema
(102 Fifth St. Next to the railroad depot, 247-8133, www.allentheatresinc.com)
Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Forest Whitaker plays the butler who served presidents for three decades at the White House. Oh, the stories he could tell ... Rated PG-13. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JAagFuR_XIM
The Way Way Back. An introverted 14-year-old tries to survive summer vacation with his mom and her boyfriend (Steve Carell). Rated PG-13. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwNo1i3jkCo&feature=player_embedded
The Animas City Theatre (128 E. College Drive, 799-2281, www.animascitytheatre.com)
Blue Jasmine. Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) moves from East Coast to West after her divorce and we find that’s only the beginning of her problems. TRAILER: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=FER3C394aI8
The Back Space Theatre
(1120 Main Ave., 259-7940, www.thebackspacetheatre.org)
The Hunt. Mads Mikkelsen (“Casino Royale”) won the Best Actor Award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of Lucas, a former school teacher who has been forced to start over having overcome a tough divorce and the loss of his job. Then it gets worse when a student falsely accuses him of things teachers aren’t supposed to do. Rated R.
Ted Holteen and Associated PresS
