(Lee Daniels/2012/USA)
I don’t
know how close Lee Daniels film adaptation comes to Pete Dexter’s
novel The Paperboy but the author did co-write the screenplay so it’s
gotta be close, however having seen the film I am unlikely to ever
pick up the book and find out. The Paperboy is a lurid splatter of
cinematic vomit with the one redeeming factor being Nicole Kidman’s
portrayal of steam pressed southern belle sexuality in the form of
Charlotte Bless. Everyone else does enough to keep afloat in a swamp
of Southern Gothic clichés and overblown, garish Jim Crow camp but
not near enough to bring any degree of subtlety to the exaggerated,
sensibility bashing plot turns. Daniels is like an excited child
drawing outside the lines of the picture. A large dose of restraint
might have produced something of far more guile and charm.
(2/5)
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