Dir: Steve Zaillian.
Cast: Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins, James Gandolfini.
THERE are so many things wrong with this film starring Sean Penn and Jude Law I hardly know where to begin. It’s frustatingly incohesive, overstuffed with subplots and tediously long. But most annoying is Penn’s performance as hick salesman Willie Stark whose patter catapults him to the heady heights of US state Governor. He obviously thinks that sticking your chest out and flailing your arms around at every opportunity will guarantee an Oscar nomination. Purlease!
OK, it’s not entirely the former Mr Madonna’s fault. This is the second screen version of a Pulitzer prize-winning novel about a corrupt populist Southern governor not unlike some bloke in Louisiana called Huey P. Long. But it simply just doesn’t do the book justice.
We see God-fearing, teetotal Stark promising to put the an end to the reign of rich, fat cats and give the have-not hicks a chance. Corrupt He gets into power by embarking on a tour of country fairs where he draws people from the delights of the coconut shy to the voting booth with a series of drum-beating speeches.
Stark has big plans to spend oil money helping the poor, building new roads and schools. But as soon as he’s in power, guess what—he’s cheating on his wife, drinking heavily, surrounding himself with thugs like Tiny Duffy (James Gandolfini) and suddenly becomes more corrupt than North Korea. Did I blink and miss the explanation for his sudden transformation?
Meanwhile Law is disillusioned newspaperman Jack Burden, who quits his job to work for Willie and soon realises Willie’s not the man he thought he was. Anthony Hopkins, who plays a judge and sounds more Cardiff than Southern, pops up alongside Kate Winslet in underdeveloped side stories. Winslet is particularly handicapped by a character who gets almost nothing but exposition throughout.
Every sub-plot feels undercooked. There is the sense that somewhere is the extra footage needed to turn this into a terrific three hour-plus film. The gaps in the character arcs are so cavernous that the rest of the movie falls down them and the audience is left utterly befuddled. In trying too hard to hammer home a worn political message, Zaillian has tragically edited out the entertainment.
There are no good guys here, only not-so-bad guys — and lots of ’em. It all makes for some complex plotting. The question this film is asking is, do you have to be corrupt to hold on to the power to do good? Sadly when the credits role this film won’t provoke debate about this...only overwhelming relief that it’s time to leave the cinema at last.