Papillon

In 1931 a French thief by the name of Henri Charrière (nicknamed Papillon because of the butterfly tattoo on his chest) was sent to jail for a murder he did not commit. He was sentenced to 10 years of hard labour in a penal colony in French Guiana but while there attempted to escape and on his recapture he found his jail sentence lengthened. The prison authorities were tough but the strength of the human spirit was far tougher. Papillon is his story. Again.

Remakes are tricky to get right. A carbon copy remake is virtually pointless. If you change too much you run the risk of alienating the inbuild audience comprised of fans of the original. To make a remake worthwhile it needs a bit of pep. The remake of Papillon has plenty of pep but it's missing the one thing that made the original sing. The chemistry between Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. That thing that gave the original it's emotional heft. It's just not here at all.

I liked some of this though. Sort of. It does enough to earn it's right to exist. It's depiction of prison life in the 1930's is absolutely harrowing. A hell of abuse, neglect, disease, shit, piss, back breaking work, stabbings, paranoia, insomnia, degradation and if you're lucky, death. Prisoner rights didn't exist back then. It's all enough to put anyone on the straight and narrow. Henri is able for it though. He's the king of compartmentalisation. He only has one thing on his mind. Escape. He lives for it. He breathes for it. It's the only thing that gets him through his day. Charlie Hunnam is a fine lead. He's no Steve McQueen (Who is??) but he makes it work. The forced affectations that marred his early work seem to have disappeared and he seems more relaxed onscreen these day. His positivity in the part helps us through the movie too. Without his attitude this would be a far too suffocating and frustrating watch. Because it does get frustrating.

It's far too long. Like the original it breaks the 2 hour mark with ease and suffers because of it. There's long stretches where you'll feel almost as bored as Henri did as he struggled through years of solitary confinement. It's other issue is a bigger one. The friendship Henri makes to survive. A man called Vega (Rami Malek), a man with enough money on him to help Henri's escape attempts possible. Henri protects Vega for his money and they become buds over the years. It never feels once believable sadly. It's a friendship that's all take and no give. There's no chemistry between them and it's down to a horribly dull showing from Malek which is annoying because he's capable of much more. Everytime he appears onscreen you want Henri to just rob him and dump him. The whinging little melt.

This could have been a remake that improved on the original but a fatal casting flaw put the kibosh on it. Because of it it's a film you'll never hear mentioned in the same breath as the classics of the genre. It's more of a Lock Up than a Shawshank. At the time of it's release I was baffled as to why it never got any screenings in Irish cinemas. Now I understand why.