The Paperboy (2012 film)

The Paperboy is a 2012 American crime drama thriller film co-written and directed by Lee Daniels and based on Pete Dexter's 1995 novel of the same name. The novel was inspired by a true story. It follows Miami reporter Ward Jansen who returns to his hometown in Florida to investigate a murder case involving a death row inmate. The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, David Oyelowo, John Cusack and Macy Gray.

The film was produced by Daniels, Hilary Shor, Avi Lerner, Ed Cathell III, and Cassian Elwes. It premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival on May 24, 2012 and October 5, 2012 worldwide. It grossed $102,706 in its opening weekend and $3.8 million worldwide, against a budget of $12.5 million, making it a box office bomb. Despite its mixed reviews, Kidman's performance drew Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.

Plot
Anita, the former maid of the Jansen family, narrates the events of the summer of 1969 when Ward Jansen, an idealistic reporter, returned to his hometown of Lately, Florida, to investigate the events surrounding the 1965 murder of a violent local sheriff. Convicted for this murder was a man named Hillary Van Wetter, a swamp-dwelling alligator hunter and small-time criminal, placed on death row for the murder. Ward and his colleague, Englishman Yardley Acheman, investigative reporters with The Miami Times, plan to help exonerate him. Some evidence against Van Wetter was "lost", which Ward and Yardley plan to expose as redneck injustice.

Alabamian Charlotte Bless had fallen in love with Van Wetter, though they had not met, while only exchanging correspondence. She arrives in Lately, determined to prove his innocence as well so they could marry. Charlotte requests the help of Ward and Yardley who then hire Jack, Ward's younger brother, as their driver. Jack falls quickly in love with Charlotte, who wants Jack to remain her friend, and feels she loves Van Wetter.

Ward has mixed feelings about returning home to his estranged father, W.W., who runs Lately's local newspaper. The brothers dislike their divorced father's newest girlfriend, Ellen. Jack works as a paperboy for his father's business after having been expelled from college, which ended his collegiate swimming career. The only person Jack considers a friend is Anita, who helped Ward raise him after Jack and Ward’s mother left.

Charlotte is very open with Jack that she has sex with many men, once stating to him “(having sex) with a man is the most natural thing in the world,” yet refusing to do it with Jack, so as to not ruin their “friendship”. Jack, saddened throughout the film by this truth, walks toward the water while Charlotte lies on the shore. While swimming, Jack is stung by a jellyfish in multiple places, and crawls slowly toward shore, appearing to be dying. Two women see him struggling, come to him, saying he must be having an allergic reaction, and one prepares to urinate on the wounds, knowing this is the only way to save him. Charlotte sees the woman standing above Jack about to urinate on him and begins screaming at her, insisting that if anyone urinates on Jack it should be Charlotte. Charlotte then urinates on all of Jack’s wounds, thereby saving his life.

When they return they find W.W. has published an article in the newspaper about the incident regarding Charlotte urinating on Jack’s wounds. Jack appears livid and attacks Yardley, and during their fight calls Yardley a “n****r,” which he later sees upset Anita as well. This altercation is the beginning of bad blood between Yardley and Jack.

Van Wetter is initially hostile to the reporters. Contrary to the romantic portrayal he had painted of himself in his letters to Charlotte, he reveals himself to be racist, sexist, and crude. After Van Wetter tells them his alibi, the Jansens travel to meet Van Wetter's Uncle Tyree. Tyree, who lives in disturbing and unsanitary conditions in the swamp, surrounded by the bodies of dead animals, is initially reluctant to admit his own crime to save his nephew's life, but finally admits that they were away the night of the murder, stealing sod from a golf course in Ormond Beach. The exchange ends in conflict, Tyree and another family member threatening violence, and the Jansen brothers leaving quickly thereafter.

Yardley and Charlotte visit the golf course to verify the story. Yardley claims to have found the developer who bought the stolen sod, saying that the man requested anonymity, so refuses to disclose his name, even to Ward. Yardley goes back to Miami to start writing the article, but not before Jack sees Yardley appear flirtatious with Charlotte, prompting Jack to ask her later if she slept with Yardley. Charlotte admits she did, but treats it as another minor sexual occurrence, while regarding their friendship as a pillar in her life. As it begins to rain, she invites Jack to dance with her where they are, on the lawn, with Jack in only his underwear, during which they both appear deeply joyous.

Jack later- again- proclaims his love to Charlotte, giving her his mother’s ring, but Charlotte says “lemme know when you want it back,” and infers she is waiting for Van Wetter.

Suspicious of Yardley's motives, Ward decides to check Ormond Beach himself, with Jack and Charlotte in tow. On the way Ward gets drunk at a bar and approaches a black man. During the night, Charlotte and Jack hear alarming sounds and run from their rooms. Jack sees Ward tied up through a hotel window and see the man Ward had evidently left the bar with, then several other men in the room, who had gruesomely beaten Ward who was hog tied naked on a large piece of plastic, which was covered in Ward’s blood. Most of the men run out of the room, but Jack grabs one and beats him, then falls to Ward’s body, holds him closely, and cries. Ward is brought to the hospital.

Shortly after Ward’s beating, Jack spends time with Charlotte again, during which she reminds Jack often that she is not the right one for him. Jack remains unable to escape what he believes is true love for Charlotte, and one night she looks into Jack’s longing eyes and says, “okay, but just this once.” Jack immediately removes his clothing and looks extremely happy as the two begin to kiss. Anita narrates the scene as they begin to make love, and ends the scene quickly, so the details of the sexual encounter remain mysterious.

Jack goes to Miami, hoping to convince Yardley not to publish the unproven "facts" with Ward’s name as co-reporter, but there is clear rivalry between the two that will not allow for any negotiation. During this confrontation, Yardley reveals he is an American born man pretending to be English to escape discrimination, suddenly speaking without an accent and stating “you have to be James Bond to get a job in this town”. Yardley additionally reveals to Jack that while Yardley was intoxicated, he once let Ward perform fellatio on him. Jack, however, does not resent Ward for being homosexual; he feels only disappointed that Ward felt he needed to keep it a secret from Jack for so long.

The article is published and Yardley leaves for New York with a book deal. Van Wetter obtains a pardon and locates Charlotte, who is then living elsewhere, and sees clearly she no longer wants him, but her candid disinterest does not deter him. Van Wetter forces himself onto Charlotte many times during the scene, with Charlotte initially trying to fight him off, but gradually seeing she cannot stop him. He tells her she will go with him to live “in the swamp”; she says she does not want to live in a swamp, but Van Wetter insists she will be fine. Charlotte appears to concede only out of fear and inability to fight Van Wetter any longer. Months later, Charlotte lives unhappily with Van Wetter’s abusive behavior and sends a letter to Jack telling him she made a mistake and would like to reunite with Jack at his father's wedding. Jack does not receive the letter until the wedding reception, smuggled to him by Anita, who was fired from the Jansen household and knew Ellen did not intend to pass the letter to Jack.

The day of the wedding, Jack sees Charlotte is not there, and strongly suspects it is because Van Wetter refused to allow her to go. Jack, joined by Ward, who has revealed that the anonymous developer does not exist, undercutting Van Wetter's alibi. Jack and Ward find that Van Wetter has killed Charlotte rather than let her attend the wedding. A fight ensues and Van Wetter slices Ward’s throat with a machete as Jack watches, unable to stop his brother’s death. As the sun sets, Van Wetter then targets Jack who quickly runs away, dodging through the forest, and dives into the swamp. Van Wetter walks back to the cabin and reappears with a small motorboat, in which he carefully searches for Jack with a flashlight in hand. Jack appears to swim and hide with some ease, while Jack seems to have flashbacks of relaxing swims he once had during his time on the college team. Jack treads near-silently right beside Van Wetter’s boat, careful to remain on the opposite side of where Van Wetter searches. The boat’s engine dies and Van Wetter is next seen approaching his cabin, looks toward the porch, then enters the kitchen area, where he had killed Charlotte. Van Wetter appears alone, scared, and contemplative, and then Jack is seen driving away in the motorboat, towing the bodies of Ward and Charlotte, presumably back home.

Anita concludes her narration of the events in Jack’s life by recounting that Van Wetter was convicted for the murders of Ward and Charlotte and sent to the electric chair; she states Jack reunited with his mother at Ward's funeral; and she states Jack would never get over his “first love”.

Production
After the critical acclaim for his previous film Precious, Daniels was sent many possible scripts for a follow-up including several lucrative offers. However he decided to pass on these stating that "I couldn’t get off on it" and stating that he instead "went with what my spirit told me to do". Daniels had stated that along with Push, he viewed The Paperboy as "one of the great, great novels". He particularly enjoyed the characters in the novel, finding them extremely relatable, though he found the plot was somewhat nonsensical and thus viewed the movie as an attempt to create a more coherent storyline.

Daniels was initially nervous about meeting Kidman although he calmed down once she told him "I'm just a working girl, Lee. You've got to direct me." Kidman herself was unsure if she could portray her character, only gaining confidence after Daniels introduced her to several women who, similar to Kidman's character, had romantic involvements with prisoners, one of whom told her that she believed she could portray such a relationship convincingly. During the shoot Kidman only communicated to Cusack as her character, Charlotte, stating "I wanted to deal with him as the character and have him deal with me as the character". As a joke after filming wrapped, Cusack went up to Kidman and formally introduced himself. One notable scene featured Kidman urinating on Efron after he gets badly stung by a swarm of jellyfish. Although neither the actors involved nor Daniels had any problem with filming the scene, Daniels admitted to getting cold feet while editing and consulted with Kidman about possibly removing the scene who reportedly told him "Lee, you made me pee on Zac Efron. If you don't put it in the movie, you need to man up."

Release
The film premiered on the 65th Cannes Film Festival on May 28, 2012, to mixed reviews. Robbie Collin at The Daily Telegraph wrote that "Readers of the film's Wikipedia page may spot the claim that it received 'the longest sustained standing ovation of the festival at 16 minutes'. As someone who was present at that screening, and the cacophonous quarter-hour of jeering, squawking and mooing that followed, I think Wikipedia may want to clarify its definition of 'standing ovation'." The Guardian surmised, "those who prefer delicate watercolours had better stand well back. It makes a lurid splash."

The Paperboy also screened at the 2012 Ischia Global Film & Music Festival, 39th edition of the Flanders International Film Festival Ghent, 2012 New Orleans Film Festival, 50th New York Film Festival (to which Kidman received a tribute gala), 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, and the 2012 Stockholm International Film Festival.

Reception


Reception to The Paperboy has been mixed with some critics comparing it to Lee Daniels' directorial debut, Shadowboxer. Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph disliked the film at its Cannes premiere, but positively reappraised it almost a year later on its UK release. "As a piece of art this is all lust, no caution; a heady mirage of sex, swamps and soul music that wants nothing more than for you to share in the joke. Thank goodness I finally got it," he wrote. Most praise has been for Nicole Kidman's portrayal of Charlotte Bless, and Collin wrote that she "has not been this good since Dogville (2003), and...secretes sensuality like a slug does slime". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian said, "Nicole Kidman really is terrifically good as Charlotte: funny, sexy, poignantly vulnerable". Sophia Pande of Nepali Times wrote, "The Paperboy may not be to your taste. It is often over the top and very violent, but this is Lee Daniel’s [sic] style. It is this very style backed by intelligence, undeniable directorial skill, and an intimate knowledge of his deeply flawed but very human characters that make for such a compelling film." Nonetheless, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists nominated Kidman in the category, "Actress Most in Need of a New Agent."

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 45% based on 147 reviews, with an average rating of 5.20/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Trashy and melodramatic, The Paperboy is enlivened by a strong cast and a steamy, sordid plot, but it's uneven and often veers into camp." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

The staff of The A.V. Club named it the worst film of 2012. The New Yorker film critic Michael Schulman called the film "deliriously tawdry and nonsensical". Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger wrote of the film, "Simply ugly trash," while Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle basically recommended one watch the movie "with the indispensable aid of that wonderful late-20th century invention: fast forward." . A.O. Scott of the New York Times said the film was "what cinema scholars (and speakers fluent in the film’s native idiom) might call a hot mess." .

Soundtrack
Singer Mariah Carey wrote and recorded a song titled "Mesmerized" for the film's soundtrack. The song, however, was not released to coincide with the film. It was released on October 2, 2020 on her special collection of previously hard-to-find and unreleased songs, The Rarities. The song was produced by Carey along with Loris Holland and Randy Jackson.