The Paperboy (2012)

Film: The Paperboy (2012)
Stars: Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, David Oyelowo, Macy Gray
Director: Lee Daniels
Oscar History: No nominations (though it has to be believed that Nicole Kidman's Globe and SAG nominated performance was a near miss)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

I don't use the phrase "hot mess" very often, but even I can acknowledge when I've seen one.  Urban dictionary defines a hot mess as "when one's thoughts or appearance are in a state of disarray but they maintain an undeniable attractiveness or beauty."  That pretty much sums up Lee Daniels's (who brought us the brilliant Precious, and has a pair of Oscar nominations to show for it) latest film, a tale from the backwoods of Florida about a pair of investigative journalists in the late 1960's trying to exonerate a man who may or may not be a cold-blooded killer.

(Spoilers ahead) The film is really two tales in one, usually a good sign but in this case a muddled disaster.  The first is a fairly straight-forward love story, about a young, directionless college dropout named Jack (Efron) who falls for the convict-crazy cougar next door (Kidman, in a performance that has to be seen to be believed), Ms. Charlotte Bless.  The second is the far seedier, Deliverance-infused story about how Jack and his older brother Ward (McConaughey) try to free Hillary van Wetter (Cusack), a convicted murderer from prison.  It's an interesting thought process, as the judicial system clearly screwed over Hillary by not giving him a fair trial, but there's still ample evidence that he did indeed commit the murder that he is charged with committing.  Attempting to string these stories together is Anita (Gray), the former maid of the two brothers, and the movie's narrator.

The film meanders and wanders and then decides to just shift hazily throughout as it tells these two stories.  It's hard to say which is the more compelling, though your focus the entire movie is on Kidman no matter what is happening onscreen, so much so that you miss complete plot points being seduced by the Oscar winner.  While cinephiles will know that Kidman is not one to be trifled with when she's getting into character (she is not afraid to be daring and bold to get to where her arch is headed), those expecting a Grace Kelly or even a Satine are going to be boldly shocked.  Charlotte Bless is an undeniably erotic mix of Mamie van Doren and Squeaky Fromme, a woman that hangs off of every word her "soulmate" Hillary says, and is convinced of his innocence, even when he clearly is only interested in consuming her physically.   Kidman spends the film pleasuring herself, urinating, and forcing her movie star beauty through the white trash ringer, and as a result, we get a guttural allure that is clearly excellent and unique, even if it's hard to fathom the reasons behind her character.  I do have to tip my hat to one of my favorite actresses, though, for continuing to take on such bold and daring work from directors with vision, even if those visions seem like the ramblings of a peyote high.

No one else in the film is remotely as successful as Kidman at resonating with the audience or the material, least of all the screenwriter.  The film's editing is poor, and you find yourself suddenly in and out of the truth, as if the film has been activating the already manic The Black Dahlia of a few years back, and decided that it wanted to make that film, but on a larger acid trip.  Suddenly McConaughey is tied and gagged on the floor of a hotel, with little mention as to why, or his writing partner is suddenly out-of-the-blue no longer British, and again, there seems to be no reason why.  The movie, especially in its latter hour, seems as if it was written in a pitch meeting, rather than in a fully-formed script.  By the time we reach the film's inevitable conclusion (an ending that makes sense, I suppose, with Cusack never confirmed as the killer of the Sheriff that he was imprisoned for, but instead sentenced to the chair for murdering Ward and Charlotte), you are left dazed, rather than questioning or resolved.

The filmmaker is equal opportunity about his exploitation of his stars' attractiveness.  While Kidman finds her Daisy Duke appeal, the filmmaker is also aware that Zac Efron has that movie star magnetism, and while Efron is not the actor that Kidman is, and therefore doesn't find the wild abandon at the center of his character, Daniels is talented enough to still mine from him a desirableness that assists the first half of his story.  Efron seems to be flirting with literally everything onscreen, constantly parading around in nothing but his underwear, and evocatively toying with the audience with a fluid sexuality.  The film oddly doesn't take advantage of the handsomeness of its other leading man, McConaughey (in a bizarre WTF performance that serves as the counterpoint to his superb craziness in Magic Mike), but both Efron and Kidman make for intoxicating, if baffling, beauties for us to stare at for two hours, making the movie a hot, but easily dismissed, mess.