Zig Zag

Directed by Richard A. Colla, Zig Zag follows George Kennedy’s Paul R. Cameron as he concocts a plan to collect the ransom for an unsolved kidnapping by framing himself for the crime – with the scheme stemming from a terminal cancer diagnosis that would leave Paul unable to provide for his family. It’s a seemingly foolproof premise that’s employed to progressively underwhelming and flat-out interminable effect by Colla, as the filmmaker, having squandered a promising opening stretch that boasts an impressively captivating prison-intake sequence, delivers a momentum-free endeavor that devotes far too much time to elements of an often breathtakingly tedious nature – with this especially true of a midsection that agonizingly stresses the minutia of several characters’ dull, convoluted exploits. (There is, for example, a heavy emphasis on Paul’s hopelessly uninvolving investigation into the aforementioned kidnapping.) By the time the endless, conspiracy-focused third act rolls around, Zig Zag has cemented its place as an entirely misbegotten piece of work that rarely, if ever, lives up to the can’t-miss bent of its setup.

* out of ****