Writers: Peter Dexter and Lee Daniels
Stars: Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman and John Cusack
When I first heard about 'The Paperboy' it sounded awful. I had heard it was to be based on the game of the same name from the 80's and to star Zac Efron. I couldn't imagine how they'd base a film on someone delivering papers especially as that someone would be the star of Disney's High School Musical. When I finally saw a trailer it became glaringly obvious that this wasn't a video game inspired movie, Efron was still staring but it looked good. Surprisingly so. Turn out that 'The Paperboy' is actually based on the 1995 novel by Peter Dexter (who co-wrote the screenplay along with director Lee Daniels).
Set in late 60's Florida, The story revolves around a prisoner, Hilary van Wetter (Cusack) convicted for the murder of the small town sheriff. His pen-pal girlfriend, Charlotte Bliss (Kidman) insists that he is innocent and that an injustice was carried out in jailing him. She writes to Miami based, former local boy, journalist Ward Jansen (McConaughey) and he investigates to find out the truth with the help of Charlotte, Colleague Yardley Acheman (David Oyewolo) and his younger brother Jack Jansen (Efron).
Matthew McConaughey is now a powerhouse of a star and he has been going from strength to strength for the last few years and he is fantastic here too. His character, Ward is the moral justice of the story, striving to find out the truth while burying his own demons inside. Nicole Kidman is great too and shows her range as Charlotte is very unlike many of her normal type of characters. Efron surprised me, admittedly I was a bit obnoxious and jumped to the conclusion he'd be awful in everything as per my opinion of him in '17 Again' and the 'High School Musical' films (although I really shouldn't enjoy them as they aren't aimed at me and I shouldn't form an opinion considering I have only seen bits, but we all do that from time to time) but he was great. He shines as the lead character, the slightly flawed and naive Jack. He keeps the film feeling grounded and is the most relatable of the characters, his performance is strong and he showed that he is willing to move his image away from that of Mickey Mouse's nephew which is probably a wise move for the longevity of his career. My favourite performance though is that of John Cusack. He is brilliantly creepy and terrifying as hillbilly Hilary van Wetten, the swamp originating convict. Cusack should definitely play more bad guy roles as he is a great antagonist.
There are some negatives, the weird non-contact prison sex scene between Kidman and Cusack while the other 3 aforementioned characters look on is over done and had me shifting awkwardly in my seat. It felt overplayed and slightly out of place for me and could have been hinted at or even left out altogether. The film maybe suffers from being rushed at the very end although the last twenty minutes are great and tense, the final two minutes just seem oddly quicker.
Overall though 'The Paperboy' is fantastic and definitely underrated probably having suffered from obnoxious opinions like mine previous to watching about Efron being in it (imdb particularly is full of that). The setting is beautiful and the swamplands are a character all in themselves. A quick mention also to Macy Gray who is very good in probably her biggest role to date as home help Anita. Her character is also the narrator and the narration definitely helps to keep everything stitched together seamlessly.
If you enjoy dark mysterious thrillers then it's definitely worth a watch, and the performances are brilliant too.
4/5.
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