Plot was weak and the movie was difficult to follow. I think the director relied on Sexual MISconduct to sell this to his audience. Insult to my intelligence and I am shocked with the big named actors/actress that starred in this movie. Was disappointing and a waste of my valuable time to watch...

The Paperboy is a crime history drama film set in the early '60s. Starring Zac Efron as Jack, a young South Florida man whose father is the editor of the local paper. Jack lazes away most days, forever sparring in a loving, maternal way with the family's maid Anita, played well by pop star Macy Gray. His big brother Ward (Matthew McConaughey), an investigative journalist, returns to their small town with his African-American friend (David Oyelowo) to look into the case of Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack), who was convicted of killing a vicious local sheriff.Director Lee Daniels shoots the film in a style that is quite gritty, and more so independently, but in truth could best be described as grubby or even scuzzy. That's intentional since he wants to make you feel the heat and the smeared emotions of the characters. The film is more centered not for everyone, and not for mainly the mainstream. The film does have quite a flawed storyline pace and is quite boring after a while. Overall, The Paperboy is quite over the top with over the top performances and the ending is not quite fitting.

Like MUD, THE PAPERBOY is another overrated Matthew McConaughey film filled to the brim with detestable characters working their way through a godawful storyline. This one's an increasingly lurid fable about a group of scuzzy characters, racial hatred, a psychotic criminal, and the reporters who are hot on the trail of a murderer. It has potential, yes, but as with so many overrated Hollywood films today, that potential is wasted.THE PAPERBOY has no look and feel of its own. It just exists in a kind of familiar simplicity, with all of the material feeling passé and rather weak. As seems to be the normal these days (cf. KILLER JOE), the filmmakers thrown in some sleazy stuff involving urination and a set-piece scene which copies and tries to outdo the infamous Sharon Stone leg-crossing scene in BASIC INSTINCT although it comes across as desperate and classless by comparison.As for the cast, well, you're not in for much here. An increasingly disgusting Nicole Kidman is completely unconvincing as always, and McConaughey is so wooden that he doesn't even seem to be present in his own film. Zac Efron is out of his depth and you just want to punch his smug face in, and only John Cusack has any effectiveness, playing against type. Overall this is a real mess and a waste for time for the viewer.

The Paperboy is a lurid, confusing, steamy film noir set in the South Florida of 1969 and relying on the narrative of Anita, a maid to the Jansen family who herself might be an unreliable source.Jack Jansen (Zac Efron) is a college dropout who drives for his idealistic older brother Ward (Matthew McConaughey) an undercover investigative journalist. He has returned to town with a posh black English colleague, Yardley (David Oyelowo) to maybe exonerate swamp hillbilly Hillary (John Cusack) for the murder of a sheriff. They have been put on to him by Charlotte (Nicole Kidman) a brassy, trashy Death Row groupie who is convinced he is innocent.The plot is really a Mcguffin as we really examine a slimy slice of life of the characters many of them wearing mask. Jack becomes infatuated by Charlotte. Hillary is as rough as some of his relatives we meet in the swamp. When we first see him in jail, he is more interested in getting off with Charlotte than talk about his innocence. There are clues laid that Ward has something to hide and even Yardley has an accent that seems to slip. All this is mixed with casual racism, sensuality, rough sex. You even have Charlotte peeing on Jack after he is stung by jellyfish.The film is stylishly shot, I found it compelling as well as overwrought but I also found it confusing. It seems Yardley and Charlotte made up sources for the story. What was the evidence that suddenly gets the Governor to review the case? What exactly did Ward wanted from the men in the club and did it get out of hand? Still I liked the film despite the messy story.