Review of Puncture (2011) by Ruwan I — 29 Aug 2012

I'll have to hand it to Chris Evans for stepping outside of his comfort zone and trying a role 180 degrees away from his normal characters. He handles himself well but never is able to fully convert into what this role needed.

Evans is clearly committed and I commend him, however this role needed someone like Gyllenhaal or Gosling. But I'm a huge advocate of show-casing an actors strengths outside their typical genre. Puncture does not do it for me, neither as court room drama or personal story of a man battling his drug addicted demons.

Evans is taking on a large medical case for syringe needles after a nurse is accidentally "punctured" and infected with HIV. He needs to prove safety needles, only good for one use are better than the standard needles which are sometimes reused.

Evans takes on the case but it is never made clear why. He turns it down at first but after a quick lunch, he decides to do it. The motivation as to why is unclear and it would have been nice to know why this case meant so much to him.

The only reference to why he may have taken case came from his assistant where she indicates medical cases in the 80's were high priority, but I'm grasping at straws for a possible reason. Evans is an attorney with every drug problem in the book.

He snorts cocaine, pops pills and smokes like a chimney. Despite his continuous drug use he always appears confident and ready for action throughout the entire film. It's not until the end that the real performance shines and we see the effect of the drugs.

By this point its to late because it is nearly at the end. There is never truly a main focus in what drives Puncture. Evans does drugs every scene but it never plays a role into his character and it barely is referenced.

I was confused as to what the film wanted to be. Was this a film about a man battling his demons or a major medical case? You can't have someone doing drugs the entire film and not have it effect him physically or emotionally.

All that is shown is he spends time studying law books in shady hotels with promiscuous women. Never a scene of soul searching, self discovery, emotional breakdown (well.. not until the end). The bad decisions he made in regard to his infidelity and personal life were due to him being a hot head.

At least that is the way it was shown. Puncture needed a tighter grip on his motivations. There needed to be more about his personal trouble intertwined into a story where he is trying to show some humanity.

Rather its just a man who does drugs and is late for every meeting. Puncture felt like a rush film for Evans so he could get back to The Avengers. Disappointing but happy to see Evans wanting to branch out.