Director: Gus Van Sant
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Cary Elwes, Myha’la, Colman Domingo, Al Pacino
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 106 mins

Dead Man’s Wire is the new Gus Van Sant film, his first since Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot all the way back in 2018. It’s inspired by the 1977 hostage standoff involving Tony Kiritsis, who had obtained land for commercial development with a mortgage but fell behind on his repayments. When the mortgage broker refused to allow him some extra time for payment, Kiritsis held his broker at gunpoint demanding so-called justice, and the event was closely followed by the media. In this film, however, the broker M.L. Hall (Al Pacino) happens to be on holiday when Kiritsis arrives to enact his revenge, instead taking M.L.’s son, Richard (Dacre Montgomery) instead.

This is a typically off-beat film, as you’d expect from Gus Van Sant. The first half is much stronger than the second and it’s impressively period-correct with its ’70s setting and costume design. I also really liked how Van Sant intercuts black-and-white stills from the event. Bill Skarsgård is excellent as the kidnapper, an anti-hero who’s convinced he’s sticking it to the man on his quest for righteousness with a real haphazard fury. Dacre Montgomery’s performance is also strong as the hapless banker who’s stuck in a sweat-inducing situation, and Cary Elwes is unrecognisable as a jaded detective. And finally, there’s an overripe but entertaining performance from Al Pacino as the broker who picked an ideal time to take a holiday.

While I admired the milieu and pacing of the first half (in that there’s a journey from Tony walking into Richard’s office to kidnapping him and getting him back to his apartment), the second half is overlong and often dull. Van Sant fails to build or sustain any tension, and it’s pretty narratively thin. This is a film that’s far more interested in its period-correct details than being compelling, and it simply runs out of steam. While Dead Man’s Wire is perfectly fine and has some good performances and neat touches, it fails to stick its head above the parapet in a competitive genre.