EYEWEAR'S FILM REVIEWER JAMES A. GEORGE IS BACK TO REVIEW PRISONERS!

Early on in Prisoners, we see Jake Gyllenhaal eating alone in an empty Chinese restaurant on Thanksgiving. This is the only backstory we ever get about the detective he portrays, Loki, throughout the entire film, and yet cue the most enthralling performance of his career. His tattoos, fashion sense, hairstyle. His sweeping movements from raw anger to determined professionalism. His tic and his unconventional mode of wielding a pistol.

With great actors left, right and centre, Prisoners explores how we deal with extreme tragedy. At one point early on, the camera crawls forward, close to a single tree trunk in front of a house, seemingly focusing on nothing and everything, and it’s extremely creepy – from here on out you’re going to be sitting very stiff on your seat. The tension isn’t the only reason the two and a half hours speed by, the balance of character and plot grapples with the audience’s attention and doesn’t let go – it throttles and throws you about. To mind, the only other American thrillers that pull off this kind of running time are Zodiac and Mystic River, both of which are also artfully developed and crafted. The difference being Prisoners is better.

Roger Deakins’ masterful photography makes this thriller, lacking in shootouts and car chases (and why should it), stunning, stressed, artistic and cinematic. The film is unflinchingly violent, yet mainly the violence is shown in its aftermath or through sound, leaving your mind to imagine the worst. In some cases, the worst you can imagine is probably what’s happening. The audience I was part of gasped at a static close-up and communally held its breath as one character smashes apart a sink. Filmmaking expertise.

The concept of missing children, a father doing all that he can to find her and a detective mostly sticking by the rules may seem like broad strokes and fable-like, but that is to ignore the symbolism and allegory embedded. If you look for it, there really is a morally complex heart beating away in this metaphor-laden film. The film avoids a political stance; one character isn’t favoured over any other, and the plot chooses to mirror the realities of America rather than go with the particular screenwriter’s disposition. I imagine this is pulled off so effortlessly with thanks to the French director – an outsider.

Director William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) has put this with the ranks of Psycho and Seven. He isn’t alone with such statements; the five star reviews flood in. My instinct tells me this is hyperbole that won’t live with the passage of time, but I do hope it doesn’t go forgotten and will be given its deserved place in the canon of cinema. - James A. George is Eyewear's chief film critic.

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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