Hugh Jackman sheds his claws and returns to serious drama in Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners. Running at nearly two hours and thirty minutes, Prisoners starts off promising; but peters away its substantial tension with a drawn out ending and somewhat obvious villain. The first act is sincere and engrossing. But as the script builds steam towards the big reveal, the characters devolve to play out their fates. All the angst that had been wonderfully simmering evaporates like taking the lid off the stew. I particularly found the actions of the second lead, Jake Gyllenhaal's Detective Loki, to be out of step with the intellect established early on for his character. A good chunk of this film could have been cut to make the finale leaner and more believable.

On Thanksgiving in their sleepy Pennsylvania town, Keller and Grace Dover (Hugh Jackman, Maria Bello) take their children to have dinner up the street at the Birch's (Terrence Howard, Viola Davis). Their two young daughters leave the Birch's house to pick up a toy left at the Dover's, but never return. Their parents thought they were with their older siblings, but the girls have vanished without a trace. Every parent's worst nightmare sets in as they call the police. Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) leads the search for a beat-up camper the girls older siblings had seen them playing on earlier. Loki finds the camper and its driver, Alex Jones (Paul Dano); a mentally impaired loner that lives with his aunt (Melissa Leo). The cops find nothing in the camper and are forced to release Alex after forty-eight hours. This infuriates Keller, who after a brief encounter with Alex, is convinced he's the kidnapper. Keller, and soon with the help of the Birch's, kidnaps Alex. He then begins to systematically torture him to reveal the location of the girls. Meanwhile, Loki's pursuit of sex offenders in the area leads him to a startling discovery. The girls' disappearance is another fiendish crime of a long forgotten serial killer.

The first hour of Prisoner's is riveting. The loss of the girls, the reaction of the family, and the beginning of the police investigation is white-knuckle gripping. Emotions are palpable as the characters struggle to comprehend the situation. It gets even more interesting as Keller embarks on his torturing regime of Alex Jones. These scenes are raw and powerful. The moral uncertainty of this action coupled with Loki's search for clues is fantastic cinema. I was hooked. But then as the plot begins to unfold, the wonderful tension becomes to come apart at the seams. The disappearance of Alex Jones is not treated credibly. The fact that the primary suspect has gone missing, in a crime that has galvanized all of the police and media in an entire state, is entirely unbelievable. Loki's character is established early on to be a superstar detective. He has drive, is fearless, will find these girls at all costs, but while uncovering the evidence of the deeper crimes, treats the missing Alex Jones as a side thought? I don't think so, that event should have alarmed him considerably...but then you don't have another ninety-minutes of film.

The performances are all very good here. Jackman shows his considerable range once again. Gyllenhaal's Loki is tattooed with an odd blinking problem. It makes the character memorable, but as the film dragged on I became more and more fascinated by Gyllenhaal's blinking. I'm pretty sure that wasn't meant to be fixated on, but it's pretty hard to miss. Villeneuve must have encouraged this behavior because he thought it would add more depth and believability to Loki. I think it becomes distracting, but maybe that's because I started getting bored with the plot.

Prisoners is certainly worth seeing. It poses morality issues and the title inexorably describes the fate of numerous characters. I just wish the filmmakers had trimmed the fat off the second half. It would have allowed Loki to be more believable and sustained the atmosphere cultivated by the first act. Hit the restroom before sitting down for this one.