PRISONERS : Postscripts

[jo]

JoAB
@joab46466753
Exceptional portrayal by HughJackman!
Not just for the near-insane moments (esp the hammer scene) but for that acting moment when he sees his daughter's sock & he starts to tremble & tears well up!
@theacademy
missed out in recognizing this performance!

[jo]

x.com/JoAB46466753/status/1707641794035634218?s=20

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scoop
@scoopittypoop

·
37m
Greatest Movie Scenes of All Time 🎬 #prisoners #hughjackman
JoAB
@joab46466753
One can feel the quiet grief and the anger in the father! Exceptional acting moment from Hugh Jackman!

[jo]

Akos Peterbencze (@akospeterbencze.bsky.social)
@akospeterbencze
·
29m
Rewatched PRISONERS last night. I like #HughJackman in a lot of things, but Keller Dover is his absolute best. Ferociously adamant, raw, driven by parental love to do the most heinous things to get his daughter back no matter what. His tears and prayers are genuine and powerful.

[jo]

Priya 💫
@padackled
The STELLAR performances by Jake Gyllenhaal & Hugh Jackman

Cinema Tweets
@cinematweets1
·
10h
One of the Best Films of 2013:

JoAB
@joab46466753
Hugh Jackman stands out, whether in the ferocious moments in the hammer scene...or in his indignant
demand why the police are being slow in finding his daughter...or in a father's worst moment seeing his missing daughter's bloodied sock 🎭🎭👏

[jo]

toutlemondedétestekévin
@cestpaskevin
Le fait qu’on soit aussi tendu que Hugh Jackman pendant tout le film c’est terrible

Translated from French by Google:

The fact that we're as tense as Hugh Jackman throughout the entire film is terrible



JoAB
@joab46466753
·
1m
Replying to
@cestpaskevin
He certainly gave us that vibe. The ending made us even more tense 😊

[jo]

Gäbe
@thedailykoko
·
2m
Still banging my head against the wall about how fucking GOOOOOOD this was. Christ man. I sorta forgot Hugh Jackman is just plain a great actor, when all I think of him is as Wolverine or a showtune guy.

Gäbe
@thedailykoko
·
12h

It’s Villeneuve Night in America. Now on to Prisoners (2013).

[jo]

carolzita 🏳️‍⚧️
@eriandromeda
·
18m
atuação do Hugh Jackman nesse filme é um absurdo


carolzita 🏳️‍⚧️
@eriandromeda
atuação do Hugh Jackman nesse filme é um absurdo

Translated from Portuguese by Google:

Hugh Jackman's performance in this film is absurd

Cinematografia.
@cinematografiaz
·
10h
"Where's my Daughter" é sem dúvidas um dos maiores atos da carreira de Denis Villeneuve.
twitter.com/Cinematografia…

JoAB
@joab46466753
Scene is 1 of modern cinema's most powerful dramatic scenes! HughJackman should have won the BestActor Oscar in that year.
@theacademy
even failed to give him a nomination.Why have they not recognized the talent of 1 of the best actors around, someone w/ the widest talent range?

[jo]

Hugh's aunt from France (Thonon les Bains), a cinephile, likes his portrayal in PRISONERS a lot.

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Reception Culture Cinema

Hugh Jackman: "My French aunt thought I was great"
By Olivier Delcroix
Published on 08/10/2013 at 17:58 PM, updated on 08/10/2013 at 18:51 pm


THE CLAP - The actor plays a father who does everything he can to find his missing daughter, in Prisoners. He tells us about his reactions and admits that he did a lot of research to interpret this role as accurately as possible.

With his expertly tailored three-day beard and elegant and sophisticated three-piece suit, Hugh Jackman appears to be the exact opposite of the character he plays in Denis Villeneuve's thriller Prisoners. The actor made famous by Wolverine knows that with this role he has one of his best performances in a long time. At least that's what her French aunt in Thonon-les-Bains thinks.


LE FIGARO. - Do you remember your first reaction when you read the script for Prisoners?


Hugh JACKMAN. - A shock! Yes, I was shocked. I had no idea where the story was going. I only know that I came out exhausted from my reading. Probably because I have children and from the seventh page of the script, the girls disappear. My stomach was in knots and, at the same time, I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I saw in Prisoners a thriller, mixed with a very classic whodunit, all anchored in a family drama that resonated very strongly with me. I thought about it long after I read it.

How would you define the character of Keller Dover?

That's exactly the kind of character I like to play. He is a former alcoholic. He believes in God and calls himself a "survivalist." He stores an arsenal and food in the basement of his house in case of any cataclysm. His favorite phrase is, "Hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst." He is a man with a difficult past who has a lot of inner demons. Every day is a struggle for him, who wants to become a better father, husband or worker.

How did you manage to bring some light to this very dark character?

I did a lot of research. I have had access to files and testimonies concerning parents who have suffered this kind of ordeal. And in one of his reports, a father tells something I'll never forget. He says, "What is terribly infuriating is knowing that every moment that passes your terrified child is waiting for you to come and rescue him. Not the police, not the military. No, you're the one who has to open the door!" When I read that, as a father myself, I understood that everything that defines you, everything that you have been able to build, is shattered in this kind of situation. And that you are willing to do anything to protect your children.

This role breaks your image a bit...

Yes. I realize that this is a role where I was finally able to show all my vulnerabilities as well as some emotional depth. My French aunt, who lives in Thonon-les-Bains, thought I was great. She said to me after seeing this film: "Oh yes, now it's good..." (in French). She is very French in her judgments. In fact, she never really liked my performances in Wolverine. In truth, I, too, prefer to see this kind of film. Because we have to stay vigilant. And, above all, to give of oneself...

Released 10 years ago, PRISONERS is considered by many fans as his best acting portrayal.

Jo

[jo]

TheMarsZeppelin
@themarszeppelin
Last movie. So i can stop being annoying. You want a really good drama/mystery/thriller movie, with acting from Hugh Jackman that till this day CAN'T BE BEAT!? Prisoners. Same director that did Dune, Bladerunner 2049. Prisoners is.........YEAH. 10/10

[jo]

x.com/JOEdotie/status/1741095457638477824?s=20

JOE.ie
@joedotie
It's back on Netflix and well worth a watch 📺

Hugh Jackman is phenomenal in it 🙌

[jo]

A current review of PRISONERS --

From Collider.com.

Copyright © 2024 collider.com
Collider logo
Hugh Jackman Gives His Best Performance in This Haunting Crime Thriller
BY
DANIEL CRUSE
PUBLISHED 2 DAYS AGO


Wolverine is surprisingly not Hugh Jackman's most intense character.

Hugh Jackman Gives His Best Performance in This Prolific Crime Thriller

Current Time
0:02
/
Duration
1:37

Fullscreen
THE BIG PICTURE
Hugh Jackman's performance in Prisoners showcases a more grounded and compelling anger, questioning morality in a dark reality.

Prisoners' success highlights the impact of movie star performances, elevating original films like this dramatic thriller.
Hugh Jackman's powerful and dramatic turn in Prisoners proves to be the heart and soul of the unrelenting labyrinth of the film.

This summer, Hugh Jackman is set to return to his most prolific role in Marvel's Deadpool & Wolverine. This will be his 10th appearance as Logan, making Wolverine handily the most iconic performance of his career. However, Jackman's best acting role exists outside any cinematic universe, in a 2013 film directed by Dune: Part Two's Denis Villeneuve, Prisoners. Prisoners follows Jackman as Keller Dover, a man taking justice into his own hands after his six-year-old daughter was kidnapped near their home, and Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki, a dedicated detective who is trying to solve the case while keeping Dover from making any rash decisions that could jeopardize the investigation.

The film was a critical and commercial success, garnering acclaim for Villeneuve's cryptic, haunting direction and the lead performances. The two-hander sees Jackman and Gyllenhaal at odds, with the former tapping into the devastation of losing a child and the latter wearing all the world-weariness of his macabre career in a wired, exhausted performance. It is a major achievement for both Villeneuve and the two lead actors, a cryptic and disturbing drama that questions how far a person would go to do what they perceive to be the right thing, even if it requires making many difficult, dangerous decisions.

prisoners-movie-poster
Prisoners
R
Crime
Documentary
Drama
Thriller
When Keller Dover's daughter and her friend go missing, he takes matters into his own hands as the police pursue multiple leads and the pressure mounts.

Director
Denis Villeneuve
Cast
Hugh Jackman , Jake Gyllenhaal , Viola Davis , Maria Bello , Terrence Howard , Melissa Leo
Runtime
153
Writers
Aaron Guzikowski
Studio
Warner Bros. Pictures
Tagline
Every moment matters.

What Makes Hugh Jackman's 'Prisoners' Performance Stand Out?
Jackman has always played rage incredibly well. You see that come through in each of his appearances as Wolverine, especially in James Mangold's Logan. But the ferocity of Keller Dover, a desperate man who feels as though he truly has nothing to lose in the pursuit of retrieving his child, brings an even more grounded and compelling anger out of Jackman which is equal parts sympathetic and terrifying.

Dover is losing his faith in every system and facet of his life in the midst of a hopeless situation, and it drives him to a position where he begins to question his own sense of morality. Dover ends up kidnapping a suspect who was thought to be involved in his child's abduction but released due to a lack of evidence, a developmentally disabled man portrayed by Paul Dano, and tortures him in an abandoned home in an effort to find out where his child has been taken.


Jackman goes into the depths of Dover's psyche as this crisis of faith and morality plays out, swinging back and forth between primal rage and exhausted despair. In one of the most quietly devastating scenes, Dover sits across Loki and looks through photographs of recovered, bloody children's clothes (thankfully, later revealed to be a red herring, clothes covered in pig blood). He recognizes one clothing item, believes his child may be dead, and softly points at the photo and says "you let this happen," before getting up and leaving. This scene plays incredibly heavily, and in stark contrast to the furious nature of many of Jackman's other big moments in the film. Seeing someone we expect to kick into hero mode or scream with such force that the room would shake instead feel utterly hollow and defeated in the face of an unimaginable tragedy makes for one of the most powerful moments Jackman has ever played on screen.


Jackman is an actor known for his theatricality. He began his career on the stage, and since then, many of his iconic performances have involved a sense of heightened reality. Whether he is singing in a circus-set musical, performing reality-defying magic tricks in The Prestige, or slashing through Sentinels in an X-Men movie, Jackman tends to play characters living fairly spectacular lives, and doing spectacular things. Prisoners is a movie which places him square in the middle of a dark, cold reality where nothing is extravagant, everything is deeply muted. Jackman reigns it in appropriately, matching the tone of the film and giving a performance that does feel incredibly lived-in.


'Prisoners' Feels Like a Product of a Bygone Era


While the industry has shifted away from the movie star model in favor of intellectual property being the driving force behind a movie's draw, the success of movies like Prisoners is proof of how much higher a great, original film can soar on the shoulders of movie star performances. Gyllenhaal and Jackman elevate nearly every project they are a part of, and putting the two of them together on screen is a guarantee that a movie will at least manage to have solid acting. The two of them, operating at their peaks, are able to take a mid-budget, adult-oriented, nearly three-hour-long dramatic thriller, and turn it into a $122 million dollar-grossing movie.

This kind of thing does not happen as often now as it did in decades past, when a movie like David Fincher's Se7en, even more disturbed and made on an even smaller budget, could turn into a massive sensation. Despite Prisoners being just over a decade old, it feels like even in the past 11 years, things have changed radically. A weighty, thematically dark, mature original story like Prisoners feels much more like fodder for a prestige TV miniseries in the 2020s, while these kinds of stories used to attract major stars and end up being big box office draws in addition to garnering critical or awards acclaim.


Hugh Jackman has not leveraged his stardom for many films outside the Marvel sphere in the last few years, with the exception of something like The Greatest Showman, which was a sensation in its own right. But this means we've sorely missed him giving more performances like his incredible dramatic turn in this masterpiece. While it is a major success in nearly every regard, Jackman's performance is the powerful heart and soul at the center of the dark, unrelenting labyrinth that is Prisoners.

When it was released,PRISONERS ( based on Aaron Gusokowski's Black List script) drew the same type of praise for Hugh Jackman's portrayal. The reviews were very strong in its favor & Hugh's portrayal.

Why it never got any Oscar attention is maybe due to Warner Bros's failure to mount a strong campaign for this movie.

Jo

[jo]

I remember watching it 3 times in the cinema -- I wanted to fully understand the movie, given that it was not just a simple crime thriller but also a psychological study of each of the main characters plus some devices that tend to waylay one's thinking of what was happening.

To have seen it in cinema is even more engulfing dramatically than simply on a big screen TV.


Jo

[jo]

Hardly a day passes on "X" without a mention of PRISONERS.

JoAB
@joab46466753
·
2m
Hugh Jackman's exceptional portrayal of the deranged father was never more poignant than in the scene when he discovers his daughter's bloodied sock. His body trembles, the eyes start welling up...and the grieving look on his face tells all!


JoAB
@joab46466753
And of course the hammer scene never fails to startle. Accdg to DVilleneuve, he asked HughJackman to further heighten the scene after it was first shot...and the hammer action turned out to be HJ's acting initiative!

I wonder if the initiative from Hugh was partly inspired by his iconic Wolverine rage portrayals?

Jo

[jo]

So many admiring comments of Hugh Jackman's portrayal, with the hammer scene drawing the most attention --

@melpommenee
·
1h
this one is amazing. The grief, anger, sadness and desperation beautifully and fantastically portrayed by Hugh Jackman.

Laudo
@widyeaye
·
2h
One of the most brutal, realistic portrays of grief and anger I’ve seen on film. You can see he wants to kill the guy but he also needs information to try find his daughter. Why Hugh Jackman was snubbed for an Oscar nomination beggars belief.

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Erratum
@gargaamel_
Cette scène est trop poignante
Bien que c’est un film t’arrives à ressentir la frustration, l’énervement, l’impatience et l’incompréhension. Ou plus aucune pensée rationnelle existe.
Si c’est vraiment de l’impro …
Sir Hugh Jackman je vous salue

Translated from French by Google

This scene is too poignant
Although it's a film you manage to feel frustration, annoyance, impatience and incomprehension. Or no more rational thought exists.
If it's really improv...(isation)
Sir Hugh Jackman I salute you

QUENTIN THE VAMPIRE KING
@wgrennan
·
32s
When I watched this is solidified for me that Hugh Jackman is actually one of the greatest actors of all time.

And to think that it was not a specific direction from Denis Villenueve. He simply told Hugh to act as best as he could from his well of best acting choices.

Jo

[jo]

More accolades --

naomi. ♓︎ 🗽🇬🇾
@plushpisces
·
2h
One of the greatest movies I’ve seen in my entire life. I wanna watch it again but it’s just so heartbreaking. The acting from every. single. person was incredible, but Hugh Jackman ACTED HIS ASSSSSSSSSSS ENTIRELY OFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!

It is really strange why PRISONERS and the cast, especially Hugh Jackman, did not get much Oscar recogntion - at least via nominations. Only Roger Deakins was nominated for Cinematography.

I remember how Hugh Jackman received much critical praise when the movie opened. Before that, when it premiered at the Toronto filmfest, the movie was voted by the audiences as the 2nd Most Favorite Movie at the festival.

I guess Warner Bros did not hold a campaign to give exposure for Oscar consideration.



Jo

[jo]

Referring to PRISONERS --

THE SUSPECTS (translated incocrectly- should be PRISONERS) film by director Denis Villeneuve, slow, long, same cinematography, I watched one of his films and I watched all the films directed by him. At least Hugh Jackman is an excellent drama actor, he is much more than a 188cm heartthrob or hero film actor.

[jo]

MOVIES THRILLER MOVIES
One Of Hugh Jackman's Best Roles Gave The Actor A 'Pit' In His Stomach
Warner Bros.
BY JOE ROBERTS/JUNE 8, 2024 8:00 AM EST

Before he was crossing box office milestones with his blockbuster "Dune" duology, Denis Villeneuve was trying to make a name for himself with smaller-scale psychological thrillers. His 2013 English-language debut, "Prisoners," went a long way to establishing the French-Canadian filmmaker as a directorial force outside of his homeland — a status which was cemented after one of Villeneuve's best films, "Sicario," arrived in 2015. But while "Sicario" is often cited as the film that put the director on the map, there are many, this writer included, who consider "Prisoners" to be just as good a film, and perhaps an even more immersive and haunting experience.

The film's appeal endures even now, with "Prisoners" topping the Netflix charts in 2023 and reintroducing itself to a generation that may have missed some of Villeneuve's pre-blockbuster films. There's good reason for that. Villeneuve's 2013 effort works on multiple levels, as both a taut thriller with plenty of twists and as a nuanced and affecting exploration of the human psyche, its capacity for evil, and the fragility of our own beliefs and guiding principles.

"Prisoners" examines the slow crumbling of survivalist Kelly Dover (Hugh Jackman) after his six-year-old daughter Anna (Erin Gerasimovich) is kidnapped. Not content with simply conveying the devout Catholic's panic in the face of such harrowing developments, the film details the implosion of Dover's entire belief system, as he goes against what appeared to be deeply held convictions in the pursuit of his daughter and her captor. It's a tragic and haunting tale which was, it seems, enough to make Jackman uneasy even before he'd shot a single scene.

The script for Prisoners affected Hugh Jackman
Warner Bros.
Denis Villeneuve films have a tendency to unsettle the actors involved. "Sicario" star Emily Blunt has spoken about how filming a scene where her character is attacked in her own home as having "quite a lasting effect" on her, telling The Guardian that shooting the scene all day made her feel like her "skin was on fire."

"Prisoners" similarly demanded a lot from its actors. Villeneuve had to save Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays Detective Loki, from a scene the actor viewed as impossible. During the climax of the film, Loki finds Anna but is forced to shield her from her captor and rush her to hospital after being shot in the head himself (the bullet only grazes his head, in case you were wondering how he's even alive after that). This was all too much for Gyllenhaal, who was rescued from having to juggle these considerations after Villeneuve chose to keep the camera focused mostly on Anna during the scene in question.

But when it came to Hugh Jackman, it seems he was affected by the film before he even agreed to star. The actor, speaking to Yahoo at the time of the film's release, explained that when he first read the script, "I had a pit in my stomach reading it. In some ways it's a classic genre movie ... but at the end of the movie keeps you thinking and talking." Thankfully, this seemed to be a selling point for him. Kelly Dover remains one of Hugh Jackman's best roles, and it's a good thing that "pit" in his stomach didn't put him off.

Read More: www.slashfilm.com/1596616/hugh-jackman-best-role-prisoners-pit-in-stomach/