Review of Mr. Nice (2010) by J.j. W — 08 Jun 2012

Bio-pics are tough. Sometimes being 100% faithful to the person and/or biography can make a surprisingly uninteresting movie no matter how interesting that person may be. Mr. Nice is ultimately a chronology of a Howard Mark's life without any real story behind it.

Perhaps writer and director Bernard Rose wanted to create a movie that isn't judgmental but it just ultimately feels a bit boring despite the criminal dealings. Remaining relatively neutral while working towards a dramatic point is very possible as the Baader-Meinhof Complex has proven and that's where Mr.

Nice fails. The film and story is almost too procedural and neutral that feels as if there's no real point to re-telling Mark's life. Characters suddenly appear and disappear without any real dramatic point, and Howard Mark's character himself seems surprisingly underdeveloped.

It's just a movie that showed what he did and that's it. To further compound the problem, the movie's monologues are very uninteresting and hinders some of the drama that we see on screen.

Despite that, the movies decently directed but very well acted by a Rhys Ifans. It's a nice view but ultimately an inconsequential one.