Review of Mr. Nice (2010) by Ed F — 08 Oct 2010

Charting the fluctuating rise and fall of charismatic drug smuggler Howard Marks, Mr. Nice has an appealing premise and a promising cast yet contains minimal exposition into this notorious character, whose autobiography the film is based on. The film suffers from an overly long runtime and a distracted narrative, which depicts this manâ??s eventful life but fails to explore him in meticulous detail.

Mr. Nice focuses on the life of the intelligent Welshman, whose arrival at Oxford University in the 1970â??s prompted his illicit affair with narcotics and beautiful women, eventually leading him to partake in risky overseas drug-runs and continued altercations with the law.

As the enigmatic Marks, Rhys Ifans is uncharacteristically dull, looking the part but failing to fully engage as a man torn between his burgeoning family and his addictions. The dreary voice-over is also of little use; it is as ineffective as it is incoherent, skimming over important facts in favour of tedious sub-plots and uninteresting characters. Although competently shot and interestingly interspersed with stock footage, the film is visually accomplished but inescapably boringly, never really deciding whether it wants to be an in-depth biopic or an all-out comedy, all the while failing to be either.