'Prisoners': The most underrated movie of the past year

Jackman, Howard and Dano in Prisoners

"Be ready."

Those are some of the first words of dialogue uttered by Hugh Jackman's character in the excellent thriller Prisoners.

I also feel like they could serve as a warning to film audiences viewing this film expecting just another missing children melodrama.

When Prisoners opened last fall it made decent money but it wasn't the runaway success I think it deserved to be.

It also went ignored by the Oscars which, in my opinion, was a shame.

This dark, brooding picture was the most underrated of the year, features a career-best performance from Hugh Jackman and powerful work from Melissa Leo, Viola Davis, Paul Dano and Jake Gyllenhaal.

I watch a lot of movies, probably far too many, so for me the criteria for loving a movie as opposed to enjoying it has a lot to do with how much it surprises me and Prisoners, for all its trailer revealed, is almost always unpredictable.

You likely already know the premise -- two seemingly normal couples (played by Jackman, Maria Bello, Davis and Terrence Howard) allow their little girls to step outside briefly but then they go missing. A "suspect" is apprehended but then turned loose and the authorities are out of ideas. So Jackman takes matters into his own hands.

What could have been a tired exploitative movie actually raises serious questions about what lengths we would go to to protect and save the people we love. Which meets another one of my checklist for great vs. merely good: does it make me think once I've left the theater?

Hugh Jackman

So much of mainstream entertainment is fleeting. For instance, I remember really enjoying Pacific Rim for what it was when I first saw it last summer and its now vaguely hazy in my memory.

This movie delivers action and suspense, it is never boring, but it also takes you deep into its character's psyches and it isn't afraid to take its time to let its complex story unfold.

And like I said before the performers take chances. Gyllenhaal gives an oddball performance (that blinking!) playing against his pretty boy persona and Paul Dano adds yet another unforgettable addition to his array of creepy characters.

For me though, the real revelation was Hugh Jackman -- who just may be more deserving of an Oscar nomination than say Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey (as terrific as they were in their recognized roles). This was the first time he didn't just seem like he was trying really hard to act. He becomes his character, he shows his fear and vulnerability and eventually becomes quite scary.

And the movie itself (directed by Denis Villeneuve) is bold because it doesn't give you a convenient conclusion, leaving you with a haunting callback to a theme established early in the film.

Prisoners deserves to be rediscovered before it is banished to movie jail -- where forgotten films go to die.