Directed by Lee Daniels.
★½
Lee Daniels directed Precious, which won Mo'Nique an Academy Award. He also directed Shadowboxer, which had Cuba Gooding Jr. and Helen Mirren as a stepson/stepmother assassin team that isn't anywhere near as fun as it sounds.
This Southern gothic tale is more Shadowboxer Daniels than Precious Daniels.
In the mid-1960's, two reporters (McConaughey, Oyelowo) investigate the closed-case of a convicted killer (Cusack) at the behest of a death-row groupie woman (Kidman) who has fallen in love with him via writing letters. Efron plays younger brother to McConaughey, and he wants to help on the case. He's developed a crush on Kidman.
Now every actor does a great job (Kidman was nominated for a SAG award for her work here), and some of them plumb some debasing depths for their director. There's one scene where Efron gets stung by a jellyfish and Kidman pees on him. But why is that scene in there at all? This movie is full of scenes like that, scenes where I don't get what that has to do with the rest of the story. Ah, but you see, this is the story. The investigation doesn't really matter.
The movie's shot with browns and oranges that make it look like 1960's home movies. I just wish Daniels had decided on a completely different script for this cast. Oh, Daniels co-wrote it too? Never mind.
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