Dead Man’s Wire

Directed by Gus Van Sant, Dead Man’s Wire follows Bill Skarsgård’s disgruntled Tony Kiritsis as he attempts to resolve a financial issue by taking a bank manager (Dacre Montgomery’s Richard) hostage. Filmmaker Van Sant, working from Austin Kolodney’s screenplay, does a terrific job of instantly drawing the viewer into the admittedly erratically-paced proceedings, as Dead Man’s Wire kicks off with an engrossing opening stretch that effectively establishes the central characters and the tense scenario in which they find themselves – with the watchable feel undoubtedly enhanced by the gritty, endlessly appealing 1970s atmosphere. It’s disappointing to note, then, that the picture’s momentum takes a palpable hit as it progresses into a stagy and comparatively underwhelming midsection set entirely within Tony’s apartment, and there’s little doubt, as well, that Skarsgård’s wildly (and distractingly) over-the-top performance (ie he almost seems to be channeling early Jim Carrey here) exacerbates the somewhat lackluster vibe. The movie does recover for a fairly gripping third act that boasts several top-notch scenes and sequences (eg Tony’s phone call with Richard’s cold father, Al Pacino’s M.L.), while the satisfying finale ensures that the whole thing ultimately concludes on a satisfying note – with the end result a decent true-life tale that probably could’ve used a good amount of post-production streamlining.

*** out of ****