Director: Lee Daniels
Cast: Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, David Oyelowo. Macy Gray
Rating: C-
“The Paperboy” is the film adaptation of Peter Dexter’s crime novel about a prison inmate falsely accused of murdering a racist sheriff in a small town deep in southern Florida. Armed with a stellar cast, Director Lee Daniels attempts to bring to life a story that is unsettling, disturbing, and extremely crude. Taking place in 1969, the story is narrated by Anita Chester (Macy Gray), a Negro maid to a white family. Her narration is full of nasty images of sexual fetishes, violence, and a public urination scene that will make you want to throw up. Don’t look to “The Paperboy” for a Hollywood glam experience at the movies.
Charlotte Bess (Nicole Kidman) enlists the help of Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey) and Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo), two Miami journalists, to help her prove that her finance Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack) was wrongly imprisoned for the murder of the local sheriff. Turns out Ward is originally from the small swamped-filled mosquito invested town and once he hears of Hillary’s possible innocence returns home to get first dibs on the story of a lifetime. Ward gets his younger brother Jack Jansen (Zac Efron) wrapped up in the quest to dig up evidence that Hillary was tried and convicted unjustly. Young Jack finds himself hopelessly in love with Charlotte, a woman twice his age.
Nicole Kidman plays Charlotte, a misguided sex crazed nymphomaniac, to the hilt. Her character lives in a fantasy world that she reads about through her letters to a man behind bars and thinks she has found her dream man hiding behind death row. Kidman also shows the softer side when her character playfully acknowledges the school boy crush that Jack has on her as he tries to overcome abandonment issues with his mother.
Playing Ward Jansen, Matthew McConaughey portrays a determined reporter out to get the truth, but also is hiding a secret of his own. Ward has a rather kinky side that most people would feel skirmish about. With David Oyelowo playing his annoying black British sidekick, the two make up a strong pair in this film. Zac Efron plays the pretty boy who is a loner quite well, and this probably one of his better performances.
By far the strongest performance in the film is by John Cusack, who makes serial killers of past crime dramas seem tame. Looking oily, greasy, and wild eyed, Cusack is quite disgusting and you can’t help but wonder why any woman in her right mind would fall for such a guy, but then Kidman’s character was not in her right mind. Cusack’s intimidating stare into the camera will make your skin crawl and he definitely gives new meaning to the word creepy. His portrayal of Hillary as a man with no sense of morality will convince those watching that the criminally insane should stay locked away.
Lee Daniels made a smart move putting together such a strong cast for the film adaptation of “The Paperboy” because the movie is basically so out in left field that there is no entertainment value if moviegoers are seeking a good old fashioned crime drama with a twist. There are so many different themes in the movie. Everything from racism, bizarre sexual fantasies, family drama, and couple of trashy tasteless scenes thrown in to shock audiences are so overloaded in the film that you sometimes can’t tell if the movie even has a message. The characters are sweating uncomfortably throughout the film and that is the feeling someone will get after watching this – extremely uncomfortable. “The Paperboy” is an unbalanced movie with no real purpose other than to make your stomach turn.
