Butler's Cinema Scene

Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman

“THE PAPERBOY” My rating: C- (Opening Oct. 26 at the Glenwood at Red Bridge)

107 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“The Paperboy” is a big ol’ heaping plate of Southern-fried sleaze. It’s just full of empty calories. If only it tasted better.

Director Lee Daniels’ followup to his celebrated “Precious” is a slog through small-town Florida circa 1969. It’s a mystery…sort of. It’s a lurid Jim Thompson-ish wallow in lust. It’s a commentary on the bad old days when black folks were pretty much just considered “the help.”

Most of all, though, “The Paperboy” is a live skinning of redneck stereotypes, with the clichés laid on so thick you almost feel sorry for the thick-browed Honey Boo Boo-ed recipients of Daniels’ scorn.

Miami newspaper hotshot Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey) returns to his tawdry little home town to investigate the conviction of a local swamp rat in the murder of a lawman. Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack, looking very much the worse for wear) now sits on Death Row.

But since his trial the swamp-slogging Hillary has become the obsession of white trash hottie Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman), who has collected tons of overlooked evidence that suggests Hillary was framed. She’s determined to get her man out of the hooscow and into her bed.

Matthew McConaughey

Ward raises local eyebrows and blood pressure by showing up with his writing partner, an arrogant black  Brit named Yardley (David Oyelowo). They hire Ward’s younger brother Jack (Zac Efron) as their driver and gofer.

Jack is the film’s title character.  A one-time competitive swimmer, he dropped out of college and now throws papers for his father (Scott Glenn), the owner/editor of the local news rag. Jack gets one look at the slatternly Charlotte and knows he’s met the woman of his dreams.

He continues this infatuation even when it becomes apparent she’s not worthy of his adoration. During a session in a prison visiting room – the first time Charlotte has laid eyes on Hillary in person – the two engage in a hands-off mutual masturbation session while Jack, Ward and Yardley look on in stunned silence.

Daniels’ screenplay, adapted from a novel by Pete Dexter, really isn’t interested in Hillary’s guilt or innocence. The film is more concerned with uncovering unsavory facts about the characters.

The movie luxuriates in the grotesque. On a trip to the beach Jack is seriously stung by jellyfish; Charlotte provides emergency first aid by squatting over his unconscious form and urinating on the fiery welts.

Later the investigators visit Hillary’s gator-gutting uncle (Ned Bellamy) deep in the bayou and are treated to the sight of his naked pregnant wife serving lunch.  Yum.

All of these characters are seriously warped. The most normal is Jack, and he’s terminally naïve. About the only figure to elicit our sympathy is the Jansen family’s black maid, Anita (played by rapper/actress Macy Gray), who has more or less raised Jack. As the film’s narrator Gray must negotiate some seriously overcooked language, but her depiction of weary-but-decent humanity is the only glimmer of hope in this mess.

With all the unsavory subject matter and bizzarro characters, you’d think that “The Paperboy” would at least dish up some good nasty fun. But in fact the film quickly wears out its welcome and falls into a brain-numbing pattern of trying desperately to outrage. But it’s merely boring.

| Robert W. Butler

| Robert W. Butler