The Paperboy (2012)
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, Zac Efron, David Oyelowo, Scott Glenn
Directed by: Lee Daniels
Rating: 
The Paperboy would make an interesting compare and contrast double bill with Chan-wook Park's Stoker. Both films are torrid tales of family ties, set in the Deep South and steeped in secrets, gothic Grand Guignol and forbidden passions. But while the characters of Stoker are urbane and charming, remaining unruffled as they pursue their dark desires, those of The Paperboy are for more sweaty, sexy and unrestrained.
The eponymous paperboy is Jack (Zac Efron), son of a Southern newspaper magnate and younger brother to well-known human rights journalist Wade (Matthew McConaughey) who raised him after his mother abandoned them,with the help of their tough, big-hearted maid, Anita (a smashing performance from singer Macy Gray), who also narrates the story.
At the age of just 20, Jack's life appears to have stalled. Thrown out of college and therefore losing his chance to swim competitively, he hangs around the house in his underpants (so that's one reason to see the film...) idle and bored. But when Wade returns to the sleepy Florida backwater of Moat County to investigate a possible miscarriage of justice, Jack is plunged into a Southern Gothic drama that will change his lazy life forever.
The prisoner whose release they seek is a deeply unpleasant character called Hillary Van Wetter (a thoroughly creepy turn from the usually lovable John Cusack). He is engaged to Charlotte: Nicole Kidman, abandoning her habitual glacial class to play a bleach-blonde floozy who looks for love writing to convicts on death row. But when she pitches up to help Wade, Jack is instantly smitten, and so the stage is set for a hot, violent and at times shocking story of twisted love, misguided actions, and, inevitably, tragedy, played out by real characters with real, ugly flaws, whose need to be loved and desired leads them to make some terrible mistakes.
With a great cast all at the top of their game (hey, even Zac Efron could make a great actor yet), The Paperboy is wonderfully watchable. Matthew McConaughey in particular is great, as compelling and complicated as he is in Killer Joe. The day-glo 1960s styling seems spot on, as does the restless, oppressive atmosphere of a society struggling to come to terms with shifting race relations and sexual boundaries. The pace is admittedly a little uneven (it dragged a bit early on to my mind) and the plot a bit messy, and it occasionally suffers from that disjointed 'bittiness' that often plagues films of books, but the cast push the narrative along manfully.
Dark, lurid, a little bit gory and occasionally uncomfortable (yes, there is a jellyfish stinging/weeing incident), The Paperboy is not for your fainting Southern Belles. But if you're a fan of Truman Capote and/or Elmore Leonard you'll find much to enjoy in this sultry, swamp-set thriller.