The Paperboy

It is 1969, and the air carries with it a thick, burning hot stench in Moat County, Florida. The locals would tell you it comes from the nearby swamp land, but Zac Efron would implore us to believe otherwise. He can smell something burning far deeper and closer to home, as if the devil has torn open the earth and exposed his world to the soiled depths of Hell.

Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy is a film full of an immoral undercurrent, seething in filth but never becoming jammed down by it; if anything, it is all the more compelling because of it. His adoration for the underlayers of society lives on in his follow-up to his Academy Award-winning masterpiece Precious. That was a world devoid of innocence, and this is much the same.

Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack) has recently been sentenced to death for the murder of a local sheriff and now sits on death row awaiting execution. Whilst in custody, letters have been exchanged between he and the lusciously carnal Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman), and a tempestuous, lust-fuelled interchange ignites between the two. After several letters, Charlotte decides to write to a local and well known journalist from the Miami Times, Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey), about the innocence of Van Wetter, and soon Ward and his writing partner Yardley (David Oyelowo) visit Moat County to investigate a story centring on the assorted injustices faced by Van Wetter during his murder trial. The pair hire Ward’s brother Jack, played by Zac Efron in the film’s titular role, to act as a driver for their investigations, and soon the three and Charlotte are very much embroiled in a quest to remedy these injustices and set things right.

The film isn’t without its flaws; the plot is sometimes messy, and certainly there is some power lost in the subtext because of it; but nonetheless, it is an exceedingly well-made noir with rich social commentary on racism, homophobia and discrimination. Not only that, but the ensemble is extremely strong; Kidman is the highlight, with her deliciously ripe portrayal of the beautifully dirty sexpot that is Charlotte; the multidimensional qualities she gives Charlotte, bestowing her with both hellish torment and an angelic touch, are an obvious testament to her insanely strong abilities, and she manages a performance few could achieve in such a role, something so far removed from the personality bequeathed on her by the mass media.

 

Cusack gives a refreshingly gritty and solid performance as Van Wetter, serving the material well, and McConaughey tops of a tremendous year by providing a rich and layered portrayal of Ward. Macy Gray is well used as our narrator Anita, and finally Efron affords the audience a vivid depiction of the lack of innocence, as our most unspoilt protagonist makes his way through the scungy depths of this world where everyone has something to hide and where the truth seems very much submerged beneath the sweat-soaked stench emanating from the ground (or swamp) up.

Beneath the trashy setting is far more than one would expect; an opulent tale of a time not so far gone, and Lee Daniels does a sensational job recreating this world. You can feel the heat in the air, the stench fills your lungs; the nightmare rolls on and on in this foul land, and that’s the way it ought to be. No place for the innocent indeed.