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| courtesy of Neon |
James Gray returns with an 80s set crime thriller, with family ties that are tested. This may sound very familiar as this seems to be Gray’s comfort zone, family and some kind of criminal conflict. Here we have Adam Driver and Miles Teller as brothers who try to start a legitimate business but become entangled and indebted to the Russian mob. With a side plot involving Scarlett Johansson, playing Teller’s wife who is going through a medical crisis. Unfortunately, the stories told here don’t feel like new and fresh but familiar and predictable. The crime is there but the thrills are missing.
Somehow all of Gray’s stories centre around achieving a dream, whether it is the archetypal ‘American Dream’, the dream of success, or the dream of a happy life. Paper Tiger tries to explore chasing a dream here with the two brothers Gary, the ex-cop turned businessman and Irwin, the family man with moderate business and content life. To begin with, the dream that Gary brings Irwin into seems achievable, starting their own business venture together but as soon as it means working with suspicious people, everything is thrown into chaos. The dream they are chasing quickly becomes unattainable and impossible, their lives implode and far more dramatic than what you would expect from the start.
Both Teller and Driver give us decent performances, particularly Driver who seems in his element as the confident ex-cop Gary. Johansson does what she can with her wife from New Jersey role with her side plot feeling like an add on just giving her something to do. Gray hasn’t taken any risks with the story or the characters, but those who enjoy the slowed down pacing, the thick tension and impending doom laid upon this family will get something out of the film. But overall it doesn’t feel as if much happens though the stakes are high. Save from the impressive ending scenes and shoot in the long grass, there isn’t much to take up from Paper Tiger and it won’t be a film that stays with you for long.