There aren’t many movies, especially lately, that take place in Indiana. In cases like Stranger Things, many forms of media make up fake cities that they say are located in Indiana, never fully recreating the actual cities that make up the state. Dead Man’s Wire appears to be the first major release in years set in Indiana, particularly Indianapolis. What’s even better is that the film recounts an actual event from the 70s, further emphasizing its Indianapolis setting.

The film recounts the 1977 Indianapolis hostage standoff, which finds Tony Kiritsis kidnapping mortgage broker Richard Hall in order to receive $5 million from Hall and his father’s company. Negotiating with the police, as well as a radio show host, Fred Heckman, the film delves into what drove Kiritsis to kidnap the mortgage broker, as well as how big businesses have scammed millions of their well-earned cash.

Dead Man’s Wire plays out like most crime thrillers of its kind, with this one jumping straight into the action. Instead of introducing the characters and their mindsets, the film wastes no time in starting the hostage standoff, ramping the tension to a high. Allowing the audience to understand the characters through the experience made for a far more engaging experience than most thrillers, showing the darkness humanity is willing to go through in order to achieve satisfaction.

Bill Skarsgård is no stranger to playing psychotic characters, but his work as Tony Kiritsis is among his best to date. Much like the real-life person, he balances charisma with an unhinged nature, making for a strangely compelling protagonist, and he has a goofy accent that only adds to the film’s entertainment value. Whether he’s sitting calmly in his apartment or fending for his life against a mob of policemen, Skarsgård’s blend of humanity and insanity makes every second of screen time as impactful as it could be.

The film is lucky to have Skarsgård putting on such a top-tier performance, because the rest of the cast is much inferior. Dacre Montgomery’s performance as Richard Hall is solid enough for the film, but lacks the complexity of a compelling character. Although he is the hostage of the situation, his true self is more despicable, and Montgomery never played the contrasting elements of his character nearly as well as he should have. Colman Domingo also delivers a fine performance, but his character lacked the depth and nuance to take it to the next level. Easily the weak link of the cast is Al Pacino, whose old age is showing to a detrimental extent. Pacino’s performance is parallel to someone’s grandparent doing a poor impression of a mobster. He may have had numerous iconic performances in the past, but his recent work shows that he needs to hang up the hat.

The ensemble cast is sadly not the only aspect of Dead Man’s Wire that is mediocre. The script falls much flatter than it needs to, especially in its themes about big businesses. In a time of major wealth disparity in the United States, a movie like this should seem timely and ignite a viewer’s passion for change, but it instead lacks urgency and runs through many genre clichés, making the film feel tedious at times. There’s also a large portion of the movie set in an apartment, and while these scenes reveal integral aspects of the characters, they detract from the film’s tension to a detrimental degree. A thriller should find the situation appear more and more tension-filled as it progresses, but Dead Man’s Wire does the exact opposite.

Taking place throughout the city of Indianapolis, the film does not use the location as effectively as it should. It is extremely apparent that they did not film the movie in Indianapolis, as the environments lack any personality or traces of the actual city. Despite being a major talking point to the city during its time, the film easily could’ve taken place in any other city and almost nothing would change, making for a disappointing experience overall.

Although Bill Skarsgård delivers one of his strongest performances and the film has a “gotcha” ending that will leave viewers satisfied, Dead Man’s Wire is an overall forgettable crime thriller that fails to delve into its themes of wealth and the human condition in a nuanced manner. With a filmmaker like Gus Van Sant, who has proven their strengths in numerous projects, it is disappointing to see so little effort. Not only is this a bad example of an Indiana-based film, but a disappointing look at a wild true story.

Dead Man’s Wire will be released in theaters nationwide on January 16.

Rating: 5/10

Oscar Prospects:

None.