The Paperboy

Ostensibly a steamy crime thriller, this would-be tongue-in-cheek noir begins in John Grisham territory with Florida slacker Jack Jansen (Zac Efron), the black sheep of a long line of newspaper journalists, teaming up with his high-flying reporter brother Ward (Matthew McConaughey) to investigate the possibly unsafe conviction of local cop killer Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack). They are aided by white-trash murder groupie Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman), whose arrival signals the film's rapid descent into camp farce - and not in a good way. Ineptly directed and clumsily acted, The Paperboy nevertheless has a jaw-dropping appeal, from the appallingly literal narration by Jack's former maid (Macy Gray) to an astonishing scene that requires Charlotte to urinate on a jellyfish-stung Jack. Its brute, laugh-out-loud awfulness at least adds entertainment value whenever the dismal plot enters one of its frequent lulls, but it is hard to identify anything in this mess that can really, in any way seriously, be described as good.