Puncture (2011)

Directed by Adam & Mark Kassen. Starring Chris Evans, Mark Kassen, Marshall Bell, Brett Cullen, Vinessa Shaw, Jesse L. Martin, Roxanna Hope, Michael Biehn, Kate Burton, Erinn Allison. [R]

Evans gets a chance to flex his acting muscles in playing a different breed of the standard cinematic “flawed but idealistic attorney” hero—he’s a drug addict constantly on the verge of spiraling out of control. Liberally based on a true story, personal injury lawyer Mike Weiss tackles a case targeting the healthcare industry for their inhumane bottom-line policies when it comes to purchasing (and, in some cases, even reusing) needles after nurse Shaw is stuck with one that was contaminated with HIV. Writer Chris Lopota assembles all the perfunctory elements in regard to the courtroom drama aspects, while Evans looks to be paying homage to the best-known anxious, volatile, and self-destructive druggie performances that came before; he commands attention, so it’s a shame that he’s surrounded by such rote, clichéd material (even the dialogue tends to be so banal that a line like, “sometimes the brightest light comes from the darkest places,” is used on multiple occasions). First and, to date, only feature film directed by the Kassen brothers, who both co-produced as well.

50/100