Review: Papillon

Even without the spectre of the acclaimed 1973 original hanging heavy like widow's weeds over it, the current version of Papillon would still have much to overcome, so nearly devoid is it of the rousing triumph of the will and power of hope and friendship that made the original so indelible.

Following the disputed true story of Henri Charrière (Charlie Hunnam), nicknamed "Papillon" or "Papi" for the butterfly tattoo on his chest, the film begins in 1931 Paris to unnecessarily sketch in Papi's back story. A roguish safecracker who finds himself wrongfully framed for a pimp's murder, Papi is slapped with a life sentence, to be served on a penal colony in French Guiana. During the transport, he meets accomplished forger Louis Dega (Rami Malek), who many of the other prisoners to be hiding a considerable amount of money in his posterior. Brawny Papi and brainy Louis strike a deal: Papi will protect Louis from the other prisoners who have little compunction in murdering you awake or asleep in exchange for Louis funding his escape once they reach French Guiana.

Things go from bad to worse once they arrive at the penal colony, where the prisoners are promptly informed that their first escape attempt will result in two years in solitary confinement, their second will land them five years, their third will find them in Devil's Island. If they do somehow manage to escape being shot by the prison guards, then starvation or sharks await them. If they commit murder, then death by guillotine awaits them. Awareness of the harsh consequences does little to dent Papi's determination to escape, neither does the two-year solitary confinement he endures when his first attempt is unsuccessful. "We do our best to break you," Warden Barrot (Yorick van Wageningen) tells Papi, but Papi will not be broken, not even when the warden cuts his rations in half for not revealing who has been secretly smuggling extra food to him. Of course, that someone is Louis and, over the next several years and several more escape attempts, the two forge a genuine bond that transcends their initial business partnership.

It says a great deal about the 2018 Papillon that one wishes that either Papi and Louis would just get off the island already or be killed trying, anything to reach the final minute of an often ponderous film. There's a certain monotony that sets in that makes one impatient but, more critically, one never truly believes in the friendship between Papi and Louis and that takes away any emotional impact or sense of purpose the film might have had. One isn't entirely sure if the fault lies in the direction, the screenplay or in Hunnam and Malek's performances. It may be all of the above that conspire to render Papillon just another prison movie, which it most definitely wasn't in the 1973 film. Malek, though, should take a little more of the blame, given that he isn't giving a performance so much as a simulation of one, deploying a collection of tics that he may believe to be characterisation but are instead distracting proof that his portrayal is misguided and pedestrian at best.

Papillon

Directed by: Michael Noer

Written by: Aaron Guzikowski; based on the memoirs Papillon and Banco by Henri Charrière and the 1973 screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr.

Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Rami Malek, Roland Møller, Tommy Flanagan, Eve Hewson, Michael Socha, Yorick van Wageningen