Trying to ride the hostage movie coattails of Dog Day Afternoon and Inside Man, Gus Van Sant's Dead Man's Wire is nearly as flat as the electric coil in its title. Based on true events from 1977, when a disgruntled land developer (Bill Skarsgard) kidnapped the son of a mortgage broker tycoon and kept him hostage, the movie (allegedly) reports, without entertaining. The media frenzy that followed the real thing became frontline news, involving even the smooth talking radio jockey (Colman Domingo).
Despite its cool retro look (it honestly looks and feels like late 1970s Indianapolis), Dead Man's Wire manages to elevate Skarsgard's acting range into another stratosphere, without ever taking much of a risk narratively. The protagonist is both annoying and worthy of empathy, and the ending is merely sub standard - nearly anti-climactic. This movie is proof that just because a controversial incident was ultra-news worthy, it doesn't necessarily translate into an entertaining Hollywood adaptation.
☆☆
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