The story of two little girls taken away from their families on Thanksgiving turns out to be more complicated than one might think.

“Prisoners” is not your typical crime film, it’s much more dark and twisted. It deals with a family going through one of the worst things they could experience; having a family member go missing.

Since the subject matter of this movie is so dark, without a great cast, it would have turned out like one of those cheesy crime shows you see on TV. Luckily the cast of “Prisoners” was phenomenal. Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Paul Dano all fit perfectly into their roles.

Paul Dano did a complete one-eighty from his role in Little Miss Sunshine. This time he plays a mentally and emotionally disturbed man. His character Alex only has the mental capacity of  a ten-year-old, but he seems to know something everyone else doesn’t, and he just isn’t willing to share. Alex is also the first suspect in the girl’s kidnapping.

Although the acting is great, the movie is a bit slow. “Prisoners” is around two and a half hours, which is quite a bit of time to keep one’s attention, but the movie dares to be different with plot twists throughout, which helped keep me excited. There were tons of twists I didn’t see coming, which left me on the edge of my seat.

Another thing that helped to keep me interested in the movie were the visuals. “Prisoners” is anything but happy, and it does a great job of keeping everything dark and somber through the lighting and set design.

I would recommend this movie to people who are into criminal movies and TV shows, but if you can’t handle dark and creepy things, this movie may not be right for you, because of the dark and horrible things that happen all throughout it. But for those who can handle it, “Prisoners” is a captivating, haunting, and exciting movie.