Misconduct, 2016.
Directed by Shintaro Shimosawa.
Starring Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino, Josh Duhamel, Malin Akerman, Julia Stiles and Alice Eve.
SYNOPSIS:
A hotshot lawyer takes on a corrupt pharmaceutical kingpin and winds up neck deep in a murky world of dodgy dealings and double crosses.
Al Pacino and Anthony Hopkins starring in a late-night potboiler complete with a swirling, string-heavy score, sexed-up femme fatales and a terminally-ill Korean hitman – what’s not to love? For starters big Al and uncle Tony aren’t really the stars.
That questionable honour goes to Transformers veteran Josh Duhamel, here playing an ambitious young lawyer whose perfect hair hasn’t stopped his marriage to Alice Eve from hitting the rocks. Her role is restricted to chopping lettuce and glowering, so it doesn’t really surprise when he gets a call from a beautiful ex (Malin Akerman) and decides to take the bait.
They share a bit of back and forth over what must be the world’s first social media site (it looks like the beta version of MySpace), rendezvous in the type of loft apartment that only exists in films and hurl themselves into a swirling vortex of twists, turns and never-ending melodrama.
Joining them for the ride are Pacino’s scenery-chewing senior partner and a dodgy pharmaceutical exec played by Hopkins. Both seem happy to sleepwalk through proceedings and pick up the cheque, the latter’s most memorable contribution being a thinning silver mane similar to that sported by legendary wrestler/drinker Ric Flair.
Credit where credits due – to begin with director Shintaro Shimosawa seems to be on to something. Yes his debut feature is riddled with clichés and stock characters, but the ever-escalating absurdity of it all somehow makes it work. Just when you’re growing tired of the current set-up he adds another plate to the mix and starts spinning faster and faster.
Such a trick has an obvious shelf life, though. About forty minutes in his arms get tired and we’re left with an incomprehensible, patience-testing mess. At least Pacino delivers one final flourish, coming to just in time for the climactic tête-à-tête and going full-on, Shakespeare-spewing ham. It’s worth sticking around for. Probably.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Andrew Psyllides
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