It’s a trope seen more often in romantic comedies, but on this level at least Paper Tiger innovates: it is the rare thriller that relies on The Idiot Plot. The only way everything in Paper Tiger happens is because all three main characters are complete and total idiots. It looks fine, it sounds great, and the big final sequence is actually pretty good, but that good work means nothing, because it’s in service to a story so foolish that all words of praise for it are meaningless.
In Queens in 1986 independent construction contractor Irwin (Miles Teller) is married to housewife Hester (Scarlett Johansson) with two teenage sons. The way they speak about New York City, it’s a relaxing utopia where bunnies hop, bluebirds sing and nothing bad has ever happened to anyone ever. They maintain this delightful innocence in a year when there were 1,582 murders in New York City (that’s at least four a day), when the details of the “preppy murder” case were the talk of my elementary school three states away, and even though Irwin’s older brother Gary (Adam Driver) was in the NYPD. As a cop Gary was famous for keeping his nose clean, and apparently had a great time at work. In other words, three finer, more upstanding schlemiels you could never hope to see. Yet somehow, despite his wholesome appreciation of humanity, Gary has identified a business opportunity: many newly arrived Russians are setting up businesses in the industrial parts of Brooklyn. Fresh-off-the-boat unawareness of American rules and regulations means they need someone like Irwin to advise them on the permits needed to operate legally. Gary will make the introductions and handle the cash. So far, why not. The Pearl brothers love and trust each other. It’s even fine their first consulting clients are the nice and friendly new Russian owners of a factory on the Gowanus canal (aka one of the most polluted waterways in the entire country, and with a well-earned reputation as a great place to dump a body).
But then the foolishness starts and doesn’t stop. Shortly after taking the job, Irwin decides he should go check out the Russian factory next to the illegal dumping ground at night alone. And since that’s not stupid and dangerous enough, he decides to bring his children! Hester, who has started getting awful headaches her family don’t notice, positively encourages this.* So gosh and golly, it sure is a surprise when things don’t go as planned. Everything that follows for the whole rest of the film is so offensively ridiculous I had to apologise to the man sitting next to me at the Cannes Film Festival screening, because I could not stop scoffing out loud. (For his part, he asked me if it was true back then that people really would just dump industrial waste in the middle of a river in the middle of New York City. I said in the closest city to where I grew up, there was a river so polluted we called it the Jesus River, because you could walk on it.)
Hester’s choices especially are so stunningly preposterous, even with the twist, that we must question whether writer-director James Gray has actually ever met a woman. Hester and Irwin are so idiotic, as wide-eyed and trusting as little kids waiting for the tooth fairy, that their actions, especially after seeing the photographs, is practically self-harm. And yet, somehow, this is the point Paper Tiger wanted to make. Mr. Gray wanted a movie about the love between brothers and to test if that bond can stand up to Russian gangsters, irritating teenagers, and Ms. Johansson in peach knitwear and a perm.
I could spoil the answer for you, but there literally is no point. It is impossible to care about anything that happens in Paper Tiger because the heroes do not act like sentient adults. They act like cardboard cut-outs. They are in no way actual people who know stuff about the place where they’ve lived their entire lives. That’s not meant as an insult to the actors, all of whom bring all their star power and wearied charms to the part. Mr. Driver’s off-key energy is put to its usual good use but unfortunately there’s no space here for him to do something fresh. No one could succeed as Hester by Ms. Johansson does her best. Mr. Teller, who hasn’t played a role this near his own age before, could have done something really interesting with that professional opportunity, but he wasn’t given a character with the possibility to think for himself. Instead Paper Tiger is a farce, and not in the good way. Also, the metaphor ‘paper tiger’ originated in China. To use it in reference to the Russian mafia is weird. It’s also really, really wrong.
*To double-check my shock and disbelief here, I called my parents and asked if, in 1986, they would ever have taken or allowed me to go to Brooklyn, much less Gowanus, at any time of day or night. They both just laughed.
Paper Tiger recently played at the Cannes Film Festival.
Visit the IMDB site for the title to learn more about the film.
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