Prisoners is directed by Denis Villeneuve and stars Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover, the father of a young girl, Anna, who goes missing. As the police investigation continues to drag out, Dover decides to take matters into his own hands and is confronted with the question of how far he is willing to go to get his daughter back. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Detective Loki, the police officer heading the investigation into the disappearance of two little girls.
This post contains major spoilers for the movie Prisoners...
Prisoners is an absolutely gruelling movie to watch, a story with so much darkness and so little hope. There are many twists and turns, manipulating the audience into distrusting every suspect that we come across. During the finale of the movie, Detective Loki makes a startling discovery at the house of Holly Jones, the aunt of the main suspect in the case. Just before both Holly and Loki fire their weapons at each other, Holly injects the little girl, Anna, with poison and Loki must rush her to the hospital, himself injured, weaving in and out of traffic in the snow. This scene showcases Villeneuve's talent as well as cinematographer Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption, O Brother Where Art Thou? and Blade Runner 2049).
The first thing that strikes me about this scene are the visuals- a glowing blur of traffic lights and car headlights, everything made hazy in the snow, as if we are ourselves the half-blinded Dt. Loki. Roger Deakins is an absolutely legendary cinematographer and his work here is nothing short of brilliant. As the car weaves in and out, the flashing lights, lack of focus and never ceasing movement makes everything feel like a vision, starkly contrasting the preceding runtime of the film which is incredibly gritty and realistic, the primary colours used being greys and blues.
Prisoners is a film that is built upon hopelessness. Up until now the expectation of never finding the missing little girl is all but certain. And yet, in this moment, where Gyllenhaal finds her on the brink of death, the audience is given a rare dose of hope. The dreamlike sequence above feels unreal because we can scarcely hope that Anna will live. Just like Loki, we are desperate for her to survive, and the chaotic tone of the scene increases the tension, making for a crescendo in the pacing of the film. There's no feeling of Hollywood security (" surely they'd never kill a little girl!") because from what darkness we have seen so far, anything could happen. In fact, we are braced for the worst.
As a massive fan of Jake Gyllenhaal, I can't leave without praising his performance in this sequence. Blood dripping into his eye, swerving in and out of traffic and trying to keep Anna conscious, we feel every second of Loki's struggle to get to a hospital. The visuals and Jóhann Jóhannsson's stunning score, alongside Gyllenhaal's performance makes this one of the most visceral movie experiences in recent years.
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