‘Prisoners’ Hugh Jackman Plays A Raging Father Of An Abducted Daughter; Director Shakes Off ‘Taken’ Comparisons

In "Prisoners" Hugh Jackman plays a father whose daughter was lost and decides to take matters into his own hands. The film had a lot of parallels with notable film, "Taken" but the director shakes it off.

Hugh Jackman, who is often a picture of rage as 'Wolverine' in the 'X-Men' series, lives a parent's worst nightmare. "You see four parents go in completely different and totally understandable ways, and everybody ends up asking that question themselves. How far would I go?" Jackman said in an interview with Speakeasy. "I would go a long way. That's for sure."

The other parents are Maria Bello as Keller's wife Grace, and parents of the other abdicted child, Terrence Howard and Viola Davis as Franklin and Nancy Birch. Jake Gyllenhaal is the detective (Loki) and Paul Dano plays the suspected kidnapper.

The movie plot sounds a lot like "Taken" but "Prisoners" is more of a drama than an action thriller like the Liam Neeson starrer. Director Denis Villeneuve had an interview with comingsoon.net: He focuses on what makes "Prisoners" different from other abduction movies: "The beauty of "Prisoners" is that it's all about the grey zone. It's complex, it's ambiguous, it's unclear. There's a lot of questions, so you have to have actors that will have the generosity--like Hugh Jackman did--to go all the way into darkness, knowing that they wouldn't be seen as the good guy. That is something that a lot of stars in Hollywood have difficulty to do."

Indeed, in "Taken" it was easy to root for Liam Neeson all throughout the movie. In "Prisoners," the audience's sympathies for Jackman's character may wither.

"Prisoners" will be shown on September 20.