The Paperboy

An unbelievable failure of a film, Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy combines everything the Shadow Boxer and Precious director does worst: preposterous plotting and, of course, a sledgehammer approach to The Issues. For the love of cinema, could someone please keep Daniels away from The Issues.

A trashy tale so enamoured with its complex posturing that it becomes an unintentional parody, The Paperboy takes place in the backwaters of a steamy ‘60s South Florida. While investigative reporter Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey) tries to prove that sociopathic swap-dweller Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack) was framed for murder, his brother Jack (Zac Efron, trying very hard), develops an aversion to pants and an attraction to Charlotte (Nicole Kidman, impressively shameless), a dysfunctional siren who has become Hillary’s pen-pal love.
Plot, character development and emotional resonance are non-existent as the bedraggled film claws its way through only vaguely related scenes of alligator gutting, violent BDSM, pantomime oral sex, facial urination and throwaway references to racial conflict.
Based on the novel by Pete Dexter, one can imagine a master like Pedro Almodovar bringing the story’s blend of sexuality, social commentary and surrealism together in a feverish fervour. Daniels’ approach is to merely fling outrageousness at the screen and see what sticks. Nothing does. While the performances are all committed, the characters are so irredeemably one-dimensional only Macy Gray’s cheeky servant comes out well.
The saving grace is the sweaty, sensual cinematography. All saturated light and jerky zooms, it beautifully evokes the era. Ultimately this mess of a film quite literally isn’t worth the sweat.