Prisoners Review Roundup: Critics Say It Is "Exciting" and "Spellbinding"

Find out what critics had to say about the thriller starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal

Are you planning to go see Prisoners this weekend?  If you haven't read the reviews, you are in for a thrill.

Let's set the scene: the suspenseful drama stars Hugh Jackman and Maria Bello as the parents of a young girl in Pennsylvania who is abducted along with their friends' (Terence Howard and Viola Davis) daughter. Jake Gyllenhaal is the detective trying to find the missing children.

Jackman will do whatever he can to locate the girls, but he is faced with the decision of either seeking justice or becoming a vigilante.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, here's a sampling of what critics are saying.

The New York Times A.O. Scott writes that it "is the kind of movie that can quiet a room full of casual thrill-seekers. It absorbs and controls your attention with such assurance that you hold your breath for fear of distracting the people on screen, exhaling in relief or amazement at each new revelation. By the end, you may be a little worn out, and perhaps also slightly let down by the fussily clever revelations that wrap up the story, but in the meantime, you are a willing captive, unable to tell the difference between dread and delight."

Betsy Sharkey from The Los Angeles Times thinks the film is "exciting, terrifying, worrisome stuff saturates every second of Prisoners, holding you captive, keeping you guessing until the bitter end."

But Richard Corliss from TIME disagrees, saying "Prisoners has got more pedigree than a Westminster dog-show winner. It's just not very good. In fact, it's worse than not-very-good; it's could've-been-really-good-and-isn't."

The Hollywood Reporter's Stephen Farber gives praise to the performances saying "Jackman gives what may be the most intense and satisfying performance of his career."  He adds that "Gyllenhaal is also playing a troubled character, a suspicious loner who nonetheless has a strong desire to help people in need, and he wins our sympathy for this dogged detective without in any way idealizing the character."

Variety's Scott Foundas writes "the wages of sin, guilt, vengeance and redemption weigh heavy on the characters of Prisoners a spellbinding, sensationally effective thriller with a complex moral center that marks a grand-slam English-lingo debut for the gifted Quebecois director Denis Villeneuve. He adds that "it immediately enters the ring as an awards-season heavyweight."