Fall Drama takes center stage: Prisoners

   
Dear Cinephiles the dew in the morning's and the cool breathe in the air symbolize that fall is in the air.  Special cinematic greetings to Quebec and especially Montreal for bringing out a fresh cool serious new auteuer Denis Vileneuve.   God Bless the French-Canadian in his pursuit of going head on into a subject matter that most would run to the hills from.  Vilenevue has a freshness of vision like a fall maple leaf.  His film "Prisoners" is daring and asks the viewer to be faced with a variety of moral dilemmas.  There are some parallels to be drawn between Vilenevue and Michael Haneke.  They both approach the subject of violence in a a similar way.  Both directors choose not to glorify violence and create suspense for the viewer by leaving many things unseen.

The acting in Prisoners is by far some of the best of 2013.  Hugh Jackman dives straight into a character that is completely intense.  A construction worker, hunter, survivalist, and devoted family man.  The greatest sign of Jackman's range is how he never breaks character through out the entire film.  As Keller  Dover,  Jackman portray's a character that is so typically different from his wheel house.

The best acting in Prisoners however  belongs to none other than Jake Gyllenhaal.  Arguably Jake has delivered the best performance of his career as Detective Loki in Prisoners.  Jake is a great actor "Zodiac" and "Donnie Darko" were personal favorites, but he had a child like quality in both of those features that is completely absent here.  With age Jake has matured into a part that was superbly written and directed for him.  Vilenevue claims that Jake used improvisation in two key scenes.  In the opening sequence at the Chinese restaurant where we meet Jake's character, Detective Loki it is Thanksgiving.  He is alone at night in an empty restaurant.  Instantly as a viewer we know everything about this character.  His dialogue with the waitress was improvised.  Later during the crescendo of the film.  One of the suspect's is taken into custody.   Loki comes into the interrogation room and the suspect takes Loki's gun.  He commits suicide in the interrogation room.  The reaction of Jake Gyllenhaal is one of the best examples of acting this year.  Vilenevue claims for this scene there was 48 takes.  The raw visceral emotion by Loki for the fallen suspect is so real.  The film Prisoners has a very haunting yet beautiful quality to it. Roger Deakins captures a jagged yet organic atmosphere of the small town.

Stay tuned to the fall serious drama viewers.  When films with intense subjects come into the arena in force.

Thanks to Summit Cinema's hits from France, Latvia, Quebec, and England.