Prisoners

First Hit:  Intense, beautifully shot, and engaged acting.

The opening scenes show a darkened winter climate, truck in the driveway, one family walking over to another family’s home for holiday cheer.

The Dover family’s patriarch Keller (Hugh Jackman) is somewhat of a survivalist, intense, appearing to have a quick angry trigger. However it is apparent he loves his family – deeply.

The Birch family’s patriarch Franklin (Terrence Howard) is mellow and somewhat thoughtful. Their wives are different as well. Grace Dover (Maria Bello) seems to be on the edge of falling apart while Nancy Birch (Viola Davis) appears to have more of hardened and strong background. Their daughters all of a sudden go missing.

Police Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is assigned to the case and he’s got a 100% crime solving record. He is methodical and follows his own path despite questioned interference from his boss Captain O’Mally (Wayne Duvall). The initial suspect Alex Jones (Paul Dano) is a grownup with a 6 year olds understanding of things. Loki doesn’t think Alex knows, or can articulate, enough about the missing girls to be really helpful. Keller thinks differently and imprisons Alex so that he can torture him to give up information about the missing daughters.

This film is hard to watch at times because the torture scenes are graphically displayed. The ending wasn’t suspected, but the pieces do come together and while walking out, I felt I’d been through a wringer.

Jackman was intensely focused and fully engaged his role. Howard was great as a man who was being led to do things he felt wrong. Bello showed a perfect weakness in her character, which isn’t her normal role. Davis was solid and showed a subtle rage against Dano’s character which was perfect. Gyllenhaal was sublime as the intense loner detective who prides himself on getting the answer right. Dano was beyond amazing. He embodied the character all the way and his eyes told the whole story. Melissa Leo was fantastic as Jones’ aunt and matriarch of a sick family life. Aaron Guzikowski wrote a powerful interesting script. Denis Villeneuve did an outstanding job of directing this deep dark script with both light and dark muted scenes.

Overall:  This was a very good and disturbing film.

Dead Man Down

First Hit:  I was pleasantly surprised that the story was different than I thought it would be – it was about revenge and maybe revenge not being the; be all end all.

Alphonse (Terrence Howard) is having his organization being picked apart, person by person. He’s being sent clues of small square sections of a larger picture.

The picture shows who's doing the killing. Part of his crew of people, who take over buildings and get rid of people who try to hang on in the building, is Victor (Colin Farrell). The crew forces people out of buildings and re-rents them for higher rent.

Although Victor seems engaged with the group, he has other things going on but has gained Alphonse’s trust. From his apartment he can view another section of the building that has a resident to whom we waves at from time to time.

This resident (Beatrice played by Noomi Rapace) convinces him to go out with her one evening and she tells him she wants him to kill the guy who drove into her car which caused massive facial scars. She wants revenge. But why would he do this? She has a film of Victor killing someone and is it using blackmail.

As the film unfolds we learn more about Victor and why he’s doing what he’s doing and his ultimate plan.

Farrell is, as usual, very strong as the troubled, focused man and here he wants revenge. Howard is very good as the frightened but powerful leader of a bunch of thugs. Rapace is phenomenal as the damaged woman who slowly is letting herself care. I loved how the subtle movements in her face brought forth such a plethora of feelings and emotions. Dominic Cooper was strong as Farrell’s thug friend. Isabelle Huppert was wonderful as Valentine, Rapace’s mother.

Overall: Being pleasantly surprised was good and overall the film delivered a satisfying result.

The Hunting Party

First Hit: A film that didn’t quite work in any way, shape or form.

Richard Gere and Terrence Howard are teamed up as a reporter and cameraman respectively.

They are admired and win awards and then Gere’s character flips out on a live broadcast. This virtually ends his career. We learn later why this happens as these two meet up later and go for the prize interview/capture.

This film is lazy, does little to explore their depth as people, and ends up being almost laughable. The scenes which they were to be scared just didn’t work because their fear was badly acted, misplaced and lacked real content.

Overall: There was nothing compelling about this film and it’s too bad because there may have been a good story in this somewhere, but it didn’t come out in the script, acting, direction, or presentation.

The Brave One

First Hit: It started out fairly well but as it went on, I just didn’t buy the story.

Terrence Howard and Jodie Foster give wonderful performances for the most part. I had some difficulty with the moment of transition for Jodie.

In other words the reasons for her switching from someone who loves the streets and people of New York as espoused on her radio show job, to deadly killer just didn’t work. There was this supposed build up of her fear and anger after she left the hospital with her not being able to go outside and being scared from every noise that interrupted the space around her.

The final moment of this shift, or the straw that broke the camel's back, was when she was in the police station waiting to see someone about her case. It just wasn’t enough for me to buy it. However, Jodie showed my why she has been a great actress for all these years by staying with the character and making it feel intense.

There were moments I saw the little girl from Taxi Driver who was vulnerable, intense, wise, and interesting and it made my heart smile.

Her voiceover in this film, as the radio personality, are wonderful because the quality of her voice was deep, soulful and believable.

Overall: This was an OK film, not memorable but if you like Jodie it’s worth seeing.