An average movie

Since it did sound like an intriguing story and since it was starring Matthew McConaughey, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though there is no doubt that it was quite a fascinating story, this movie itself was not bad but not really much more than that, I’m afraid. The first mistake they made, in my opinion, was they failed to clearly established who was actually Richard Wershe Sr. from the very start. Seriously, it took me so much time to figure this out. Basically, he was a poor guy who sold some weapons but then, why on Earth did Rick Wershe Jr. go to sell these AK47’s to these notorious thugs when he was just 15 years old at the time? So, the introduction was not really strong and during the rest of the movie, I think Yann Demange never really figured out which direction he should take with this story. Indeed, was Ricky a poor victim of the nasty tactics used by the police forces? Or was he some kind of juvenile version of Tony Montana? So, there was this huge splits between these two concepts and, of course, you could say that he was both and a stronger director might have managed to juggle both ideas at the same time but it was definitely too much to handle for Demange. I also did appreciate that they took such an average and rather uncharismatic actor like Richie Merritt to play the main character, that was definitely a bold move. However, in spite of its incredible path, the character felt rather spineless but, on the other hand, it seems unfair to blame Merritt since he wasn’t helped by the lack of clear direction. Concerning Matthew McConaughey, he was fine and stole the show pretty much every time he was on the screen but his character was just not the main interest here. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.