Percy

Based on true events, Percy follows small-town farmer Percy Schmeiser (Christopher Walken) as he finds himself caught up in an expensive and time-consuming legal battle with a giant corporation over patent infringement. It’s vaguely interesting subject matter that’s employed to watchable yet mostly uninvolving effect by Clark Johnson, as the filmmaker, working from a script by Garfield Lindsay Miller and Hilary Pyror, delivers an often exceedingly familiar drama that hits many of the touchstones and beats one has come to expect from stories of this ilk – with the less-than-captivating atmosphere compounded by an egregiously deliberate pace and ongoing reliance on didactic elements. There’s little doubt, then, that Percy benefits quite substantially from the stellar work of its various performers, as the actors’ perpetually compelling efforts prove effective at allaying the picture’s more overtly ineffective attributes – with Walken’s subtle, commanding turn matched by an eclectic supporting cast that includes Christina Ricci, Martin Donovan, and Zach Braff. (The latter is especially impressive as Percy’s pragmatic yet assiduous attorney.) It’s clear, too, that the movie does grow marginally more engaging as the situation grows more and more perilous, financially speaking, for Walken’s protagonist, while the relatively satisfying finale ensures that the whole thing ends on an agreeably positive note – which ultimately cements Percy‘s place as a pervasively earnest and well-meaning piece of work that’s rarely as spellbinding as Johnson has obviously intended.

**1/2 out of ****