This is one long and tortuous ride. We felt pain for the actors who had to endure what it took to make this movie, maybe more than the lives led by the real people they’re portraying. And they had big shoes to fill. It’s hard to replicate replicate the performances of iconic actors Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman in the 1973 version of the Papillon movie. That film wasn’t completely well received then citing underplayed performances and also being too long.
Director Michael Noer depicts the contrast of Henri “Papillon” Charrière as the handsome, successful safecracking thief of Paris in the 1930’s to not only being put in prison, but put away in solitary confinement on Devil’s Island for trying to escape his brutal sentence after being framed for a murder.
Charlie Hunnam (Songs of Anarchy, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, The Lost City of Z, Crimson Peak) plays “Papi” with barely any emotion. He is stone cold once he’s in prison. There is no real arc. He and Rami Malek (TV’s Mr. Robot) certainly worked hard. We expected more emotion, not only for what Papi and Dega had to go through, but slowly agreeing as their characters to work together. Dega is a successful forger who has hidden money from his counterfeiting business, but he’s a weakling. Papi has the strength and comes up with the plans using the money to try to escape. It was supposed to be a roller coaster relationship but it is way too even. They barely appear to bond at all.
Noer sets the tension with the first scenes where Papi is already in prison, peeking out through the square hole from his disgustingly bare and dirty cell. That window is his only connection to the outside world. Then he takes us back to Paris where Papi, nicknamed for the tattoo of a butterfly (Papillon in French) on his chest is having a ball. He stole some diamonds and jewelry, but was seen holding some back, giving a necklace to his spunky girlfriend, (Eve Newson-Bridge of Spies, Enough Said) instead of delivering all the goods to his crime boss. He’s framed and sent to prison, after worse prison, after worst prison. Warden Barrot (Horick van Wageningen) is one sadistic prison administrator. Talk about zero tolerance.
There are so many disgusting characters who use each other and rat on each other in each prison. These are hard labor camps shown in South America where the men were not expected to survive. It’s torture for them and torture to watch and it goes on forever. The film is too long. It is miraculous that Charrière not only survived the brutality, but lived to tell and write a best seller about it. Stay and see archive footage of the real Henri Charrière.
Not sure why it was necessary to remake this film. It’s a fascinating story of survival, but you may be glad when it’s over, rather than happy that you’ve seen it.
Bleecker Street 2 hours 13 minutes R
