Tales from the Deep South

A sleazy Nicole Kidman has her own agenda in The Paperboy.

The Paperboy (2012)
Certified: 18
Duration: 101 minutes
Director: Lee Daniels
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, David Oyelowo, Macy Gray, John Cusack, Nicole Kidman, Scott Glenn, Nikolette Noel, Ned Bellamy
KRS release

The Paperboy is an adaption of the 1995 crime novel by Pete Dexter. The film is directed by Lee Daniels, who had directed the very strong 2009 film Precious and stars Nicole Kidman like we have never seen her.

The result is an eerie film – murky and jumbled like the characters that populate it. It is wild and loose but, most of all, it is the sum of the actors’ performances.

This tale reeks of Southern-style pulp fiction: this is evidenced both in the way the main stars, Zac Efron and Kidman, play, but even more so by the vehemence and luridness John Cusack brings to the screen.

Daniels delivers this adaption with the subtlety of a sledgehammer and he succeeds in making his audience feel that they have been immersed in a tub of sweat, mud, crocodile meat, blood and other bodily excretions.

The Paperboy is told through the narration of maid Anita (Macy Gray). She also tells this tale through the blurry view of a hangover which gives the film and its tale an added haziness.

The film is set in the summer of 1969, but has nothing to do with the Bryan Adams tune. Matthew McConaughey is Ward Jansen, a Miami Times journalist who is returning to his town of origin in Florida. His objective is to write a report on Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack), a country redneck and a nasty piece of business who is on death row after being accused of murdering a sheriff who was notorious for being racist. Along with him is Yardley (David Ovelowo), who is from England and is as overbearing as hell. This soon raises conflicts with Jack (Efron), Ward’s younger brother, who tags along working as their driver and general go-getter.

Ward is prepared to believe that Hillary is innocent and it is here that Charlotte Bless enters into play. She has sex on her mind and has a thing for men in prison and wants to get Hillary out of prison. She is the picture of tackiness and yet exudes cheap, unshorn sexuality that is evident from her clothes and appearance.

The film follows Ward’s investigation and the vision of the South is not a happy one at all. Meanwhile, Jack becomes more and more obsessed with Charlotte, Hillary yearns more and more for her, clashes increase and the tone of the film becomes more and more weird as the summer’s humidity reeks into the film.

The Paperboy has all the bizarre elements of the southern Gothic. McConaughey offers a strong performance that seems to continue his quest to peel away at the idealised romantic vision of the Deep South, while Cusack is a piece of white thrash. Kidman’s turn as Charlotte Bless puts her quite through a wringer and her role is definitely different from her usual one. There is simply nothing glossy here.

Efron is the perfect poster boy who looks good and comes into his own in the way he relates with Gray, the family’s African-American servant who shows us a sort of insider’s look at the tensions and lifestyle in the south.