"Prisoners" (2013) Directed by Denis Villeneuve #prisoners #denisvilleneuve

Long before Denis Villeneuve wowed a brand new audience with his vision of Dune last year he’d already directed four feature length films between 1998 and 2010 before taking the helm of Prisoners here, in 2013. In the same year came the release of another collaboration with Jake Gyllenhaal in Enemy (a film I’ve seen but don’t recollect) before bringing us all back up to date with three remarkable films that I certainly do remember with great fondness, Sicario in 2015, the remarkably and depressingly brilliant Arrival a year later before a year later again meeting the Blade Runner fan in me with the sequel to the masterpiece, Blade Runner 2049. I didn’t particularly care for Dune (couldn’t settle into it) and whilst Sicario is good, Arrival is great, masterpiece category great. So it was, with an evening to spare and a film watching couple of hours needed, that I returned to his creation of nearly a decade ago and was well rewarded by an incredible first hour of a film that I’d completely mistaken for another!

You see, the film I “remembered” took place in a lighthouse (cellar/main rooms) and the tight confines whereby three or four characters are essentially locked in, and held prisoner, within a lighthouse. A quick cursory glance within The Matrix didn’t help me track down the mysterious film I’m convinced I watched as I am equally convinced that the title was very definitely “Prisoners”. So I was a little perplexed as the opening to this film veered nowhere near a coastal resort or a lighthouse and I was instead mesmerised by an opening hour of a film that was absolutely stunning but which petered away after the mid film reveal. But make no mistake this is still a fine film that jars awkwardly in all the right places, it just wasn’t the film that I’m starting to believe my frazzled mind simply made up!

The above opening paragraphs are taken from my spoiler free review of "Prisoners" I originally penned and published to my Medium blog site on 22nd September 2022 and which can be read in full and for free via my Substack blog site linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/prisoners-2013-4fefb8af4577

This review also forms part of my 7 volumes of "essential film reviews collection" (£4.49 per volume) or all 7 volumes can be read for free should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package:

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