SLLEPING

I wish sleeping was a normal habit for me. I don't think most people know how debilitating it can be to be so tired that your face starts twitching, yet you still lay in bed all night staring at the clock just thinking how miserable of a day it will be tomorrow due to lack of sleep. Eventually, the act of sleep starts turning into a nightmarish event. As soon as the sun sets, the fear of sleep sets in and all you can think about are those approaching hours of hellish anguish you have to endure in the prison of your  own bed.

PRISONERS

 

 How far would you go to protect your child? Most parents would do anything to protect their child. I will do anything to protect my child even if it means sacrificing my own life!


Prisoners is a 2013 American thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve and is executive produced by Mark Wahlberg. The film premiered at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival and was released theatrically in North America on September 20, 2013.

The title is an apt one - not only are people imprisoned literally but everyone is held captive and controlled beyond their will by something, whether it be their grief, anger, faith, mental capacity, past or even their job, with the latter being the case of Gyllenhaal's detective.

The Cast:

• Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover
• Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki
• Viola Davis as Nancy Birch
• Maria Bello as Grace Dover
• Terrence Howard as Franklin Birch
• Melissa Leo as Holly Jones
• Paul Dano as Alex Jones
• Dylan Minnette as Ralph Dover
• Zoe Borde as Eliza Birch
• Erin Gerasimovich as Anna Dover
• Kyla Drew Simmons as Joy Birch
• Wayne Duvall as Captain Richard O'Malley
• Len Cariou as Father Patrick Dunn
• David Dastmalchian as Bob Taylor
• Jeff Pope as Elliot Milland

 The Plot:

 Hugh Jackman,( Les Miserables and The Wolverine), who plays Keller Dover, a deeply religious man who runs a struggling carpentry business, is facing every parent's worst nightmare. They attended a Thanksgiving dinner with his family at the house of their neighbors, the Birches. After dinner, his six-year-old daughter, Anna, is missing, together with her young friend, Joy. As minutes turn to hours, panic sets in. The only lead is a dilapidated RV camper that had earlier been parked on their street. After a police hunt, the RV was  found outside a gas station next to a wooded area. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) confronts Alex Jones (Paul Dano), the RV's driver, Jones tries to speed away but crashes into the trees.

Alex is revealed during Detective Loki's interrogation to have the approximate I.Q. of a ten-year-old and is released due to lack of evidence. As the police pursue multiple leads and pressure mounts, knowing his child's life is at stake the frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands. Personal surveillance by Keller convinces him that Alex knows where the girls are. He abducts and imprisons him in an abandoned apartment building that he owns. With the reluctant help of Joy's father, Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard), Keller repeatedly beats and interrogates Alex for days without any further information. Overcome with guilt, Franklin tells his wife Nancy (Viola Davis) what they have done and brings her to see Alex. The Birches eventually decide to let Keller continue the torture, neither helping nor interfering. After Alex mentions escaping from a maze, Keller visits Alex's aunt, Holly Jones (Melissa Leo), to gauge her reaction when he mentions mazes.

Loki confronts a suspect named Bob Taylor (David Dastmalchian) at his home and finds that the walls are covered in drawings of intricate mazes. In a back room, locked crates filled with maze books, snakes, and bloody children's clothing are discovered. In custody, Taylor manages to grab a gun and commit suicide. Taylor is revealed to have faked his involvement in the killings; the blood on the children's clothes is pig's blood and the clothing had been stolen after the abduction.

Some days later, Joy is found drugged and is hospitalized, but Anna is still missing. In her drugged state, Joy rambles that she had heard Keller while imprisoned. Keller soon rushes off as Loki chases him. Loki loses him, but heads toward the apartment complex and discovers the imprisoned Alex. Keller goes to Holly's, realizing that the Jones house is where Joy had heard him. Holly confronts Keller and holds him at gunpoint, subsequently drugs him and reveals that she was responsible for the abduction of the girls. She and her husband had abducted several others before, including Bob Taylor, in order to make the parents lose their faith, as part of "waging a war on God" for letting their son die of cancer at a young age. Alex was the first child they abducted. She shoots Keller in the leg and imprisons him in an outside pit hidden under a car, where he finds a whistle that belonged to his daughter. As Keller knows that he is losing blood and about to die, he prayed for God to watch over Anna.

Loki goes to Holly's house to tell her about Alex being found. He discovers Anna, about to be killed by Holly. Loki orders Holly, at gunpoint, to show her hands; Holly turns and fires at Loki with a revolver, Loki shoots and kills Holly. He rushes Anna to the hospital where she recovers. At the hospital, Grace thanks Loki, but also asks Loki whether Keller has to go to jail if he's found, to which Loki says "Probably." Anna, still drugged and unable to speak, appears with a red whistle around her neck, much like the one she had owned. Grace tells Loki that she bought a new whistle, though Anna claims to have found her old one with Joy before they were abducted. When Loki is alone at the Jones residence, he hears the faint sound of a whistle and starts to investigate.

My Review:

I hate to watch lengthy movies especially if the pacing is too slow and it gets boring. But watching this film for almost two hours, 1:53 to be exact did not bother me at all. Prisoners is haunting and will stick with you. Its horrifying when you come to think of it that our love ones could be taken away from us and our being powerless to do anything about it.

The brutality and torture displayed by the “hero” of this film makes for several uncomfortable moments. When Keller can’t get him to admit his guilt in the face of horrifying torture, we begin to feel our emotions swinging in a different direction.


If he is, in fact, innocent, then what Keller is doing is an unholy atrocity. But what if he’s guilty? Is Keller’s one-man torture-squad tactics justified then? And what if many people (along with the law) would declare that no, those tactics are still not justified? What should Keller do, given that every bone in his body is telling him that this is the only way he’ll ever see his daughter again? What if every bone in his body is right? Keller's desire to save his little girl himself is the one motivation that keeps him from letting common sense temper his rage.




Hugh Jackman's staggering performance, acts with an unbridled rage, and he invests every snarl and rasp of that anger with meaning. Keller knows that in missing- child cases, each day the victim doesn't turn up radically increases the chances that she never will, and so his fury, even at its craziest, comes off as a desperate display of committed action. Haunted by what might be happening to his daughter, he has — at least in his own mind — transcended the law, yet that leaves him with nothing to believe in but himself, and Jackman takes us on every step of that brave, terrible journey.

But what exactly is the movie saying about all this? It could be that torture is always morally culpable, that it never elicits anything of value – or it could be that it is dirty work that gets results. There is a kind of ambiguity about righteous violence in this film and how exactly we are supposed to feel about it. The film finally effects an evasive blend of condemnation and sentimental exoneration. 

This is an extremely powerful and unforgettable film. A kind of a thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. A real powerhouse of a drama that delivers go for the throat tension and hard-boiled suspense. Prisoners is a masterpiece plain and simple. 

It is a solid film from scene one. Superb cast with good screenplay. Bello creates a mother so distraught that her daughter might be dead that she goes into a deep depression staying in bed day and night, which cleverly leaves her out of the way for Keller to proceed with this plan.

Hugh Jackman’s performance in this film should earn him a nomination at next year’s Oscars. If he doesn't get a nomination, then I think there's something wrong with the Oscar's.

PSALM 23

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for His name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for You are with me;

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

PINAY BEAUTIES ON A RUN

With the recent triumph of Megan Young in the 2013 Miss World beauty pageant held in Indonesia, the Filipinas are seemingly on a run in international beauty contests. Megan's crown was the first ever Miss World crown for the Philippines.

      

These some kind of a run started in the 2010 Miss Universe beauty pageant wherein Venus Raj finish fourth runner-up. Venus could have taken home the crown in that year if not for her major-major blunder in the question and answer portion. She was a heavy favorite to win the crown.

 

 

In the following year 2011, Shamcey Supsup finished a notched higher as 3rd runner-up in the 2011 Miss Universe tilt. The Filipinos was really hoping for Shamcey to finally take home the crown. Shamcey was simply gorgeous to the highest level ! She seems perfect. But still short of winning the elusive Miss Universe crown.

 

Janine Togonon came close to winning the 2012 Miss Universe beauty pageant. She finished 1st runner-up. She almost made it! Oh boy! But the breaks did not go our way. Even as Miss USA Olivia Culpo was crowned Miss Universe 2012 and the most beautiful woman in the world, her victory came as a big surprise as a majority of viewers were expecting Miss Philippines Janine Tugonon to win the crown. Yet we're proud because our contestants consistently placed among the top 5 in three consecutive years.

The last time the Philippines has won the contest was in 1973 when Margie Moran won. The first who won it for the country was Gloria Diaz in 1969. Since 1973 there was a long drought except in 1999 when Miriam Quiambao came close to winning being the first runner-up.

 

Early this year, Mutya Johanna Datul won the fifth edition of the  2013 Miss Supranational beauty pageant which was held in Belarus on September 6, 2013. Johanna was the first Asian winner of this contest.

I hope these run continues until we win again a Miss Universe title. The signs are promising. It could finally be this year. If we win it this year it's kinda grand slam year. Miss Supranational 2013, Miss World 2013 and Miss Universe 2013! Our bet for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant is Ara Arida. The photo below shows the four of them Janine, Shamcey, Venus and Ara. Look at the standings of the previous three. 4th by Venus, 3rd by Shamcey, and 1st by Janine. Will Ara finally nail it and win the third Miss Universe title for the Philippines?

                                                Photo credit Arnold Mercado

By the way, congratulations to Aces & Queens headed by Jonas Gaffud. These guys are the ones behind the training of our beauty contestants. For the 2013 Miss Universe pageant which will be held on November 9 at Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia, I'm sure Aces and Queens will move heaven and earth to make sure that Ara is more than ready to face the universe once the competition begins.

I don't believe in number thirteen to be unlucky. I think 2013 is a lucky year for Filipina beauties. Wanna bet?

                                                                       Ara Arida